Arizona
ASU football musters 6 rushing yards, outmatched in loss to No. 13 Utah
TEMPE — The Arizona State Solar Devils have been fully outmatched in a 34-13 loss to the No. 13 Utah Utes to open up Pac-12 Convention play.
Saturday night time noticed ASU (1-3; 0-1 Pac-12) put up 267 yards of whole offense towards Utah (3-1; 1-0) in interim head coach Shaun Aguano’s first sport on the helm. Nonetheless, the Solar Devils solely mustered six dashing yards on the night time — the fewest in a single sport at school historical past.
That metric largely has to do with the variety of sacks Arizona State surrendered (5 for 45 yards), which statistically goes towards a staff’s dashing yardage whole in school soccer. The Utes protection added two extra QB hits to deliver ASU quarterback Emory Jones to the bottom no less than seven instances on cross performs, essentially the most vicious of which featured a reviewed focusing on no-call.
“It’s powerful if you get put behind the sticks with some sacks and I form of received antsy within the pocket at instances and began trying on the rush slightly bit,” Jones stated postgame. “However that’s one thing that I’ve to get higher at. The offensive line has to guard higher, the operating backs have to guard higher. We’re all on this collectively.”
ASU’s three-man dashing assault featured operating backs Xazavian Valladay (30 yards on eight rushes) and Daniyel Ngata (two yards on one carry), in addition to Jones (-26 yards on 11 makes an attempt).
However the Solar Devils weren’t that significantly better by the air, both, as Jones completed the sport 21-for-36 (58%) for 261 yards with one passing landing and two interceptions — his first two INTs of the season. The lone TD on the night time got here in rubbish time on an 11-yard cross to tight finish Messiah Swinson.
Jones had inaccuracy points on a plethora of balls all through the night time which led to missed touchdowns and his two picks, each of which have been caught by Utah security Cole Bishop.
“I believe we got here out making an attempt to throw the ball slightly extra. I took some sacks, we now have to guard higher,” Jones stated. “We received behind the chains slightly bit and it’s form of powerful to run the ball behind the sticks. I didn’t play my greatest ball immediately. That’s one thing I’ve to lock into this week and ensure I give my guys one of the best probability to win.”
In truth, it took the Solar Devils offense till the fourth quarter to cross midfield with out the protection or particular groups setting it up with nice discipline place. And regardless of a 58-yard kick return by Daniyel Ngata, a 47-yard kick return by Javen Jacobs and an interception by Timarcus Davis, Arizona State solely cashed these three ensuing drives in for six factors.
“Utah’s protection was capable of pin their ears again and are available at us and that gives a number of heartache for us as a result of then they’re bringing 4, 5 and 6,” Aguano stated postgame. “I favored Emory’s poise within the pocket.
“There’s a number of duress and there’s bullets flying at him after which he couldn’t get his toes set and couldn’t make these throws. That’s one thing we do need to work on as a result of we performed behind the chains all night time. That’s one thing I’ll deal with with my offensive workers.”
Defensively, ASU couldn’t cease Utah QB Cam Rising and Co., which didn’t characteristic beginning RB Tavion Thomas till the fourth quarter. The Utes put up a whopping 465 yards of whole offense, which they break up fairly evenly with 260 from Rising and 205 on the bottom.
And regardless of solely going 5-for-15 on third down (33%), Utah went 3-for-4 on fourth down, the second of which was a unbelievable seize by Utes TE Dalton Kincaid over Davis. Arizona State’s lone cease on fourth down got here late within the third quarter with the Solar Devils trailing 31-6.
“In the end I believe it was simply execution,” security Khoury Bethley stated postgame. “We preach getting off the sphere on third down and we didn’t do this immediately and it got here again to chunk us. All we will do is is study from it and tighten up our protection however on the finish of the day, we simply need to execute and get off the sphere on third down.”
EXTRA POINTS
– ASU was with out key defensive gamers in DBs Ro Torrence, Keon Markham, Kejuan Markham and DT Omarr Norman-Lott, who have been all listed as gametime choices.
– CB Ed Woods and WR Zeke Freeman additionally didn’t play, however have been listed as injured going into the competition.
UP NEXT
Arizona State travels to Los Angeles to tackle No. 7 USC (4-0; 1-0) on Saturday in a Week 5 Pac-12 matchup.