SALT LAKE CITY — With a chance to erase the ghosts of their early season, the ASU football team exuded confidence leading into Saturday's test at Rice-Eccles Stadium. In a twist of bitter irony, however, those ghosts came back to haunt in another crushing loss.
The Sun Devils (4-3, 2-2 Pac-12) fell 34-18 to No. 4 Utah in Salt Lake City, all but eliminating them from the quest for the Pac-12 South title and letting doubts about the makeup of this team creep back in to the conversation.
ASU came in to the game with a plan to stop Utah's senior running back Devontae Booker at all costs. The gameplan read similar to the way the team attacked UCLA and junior running back Paul Perkins which enabled the Sun Devils to beat the Bruins two weeks ago.
That plan proved faulty, though, as senior quarterback Travis Wilson put on one of his best performances, especially against ASU. From the get-go, Wilson advanced the ball at-ease, completing nine of his first 11 passes for Utah's first score.
Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said his gameplan was to have Wilson throw the ball more, since ASU's run defense has been one of the best in the country and it worked to perfection.
"I thought Travis threw the ball really well," Whittingham said. "Travis did a good job going through his read progression and picking things up."
The biggest thing for Utah was something that ASU struggled with in its loss to USC at the end of September: stopping third downs. The Utes converted nine of 19 third downs in the game, allowing them to keep drives alive and eat up the clock late to preserve their lead and eventual win.
Where Utah's offense excelled, ASU's sputtered with redshirt senior quarterback Mike Bercovici at the helm. In his first start against Utah, Bercovici looked uncomfortable all night, completing less than half of his passes and leaving points untaken at every turn, something that would come back to bite the Sun Devils.
The Sun Devils had the ball in Utah's red zone three times during the game and all three times resulted in field goals, leaving 12 more possible points on the scoreboard and momentum on the field. All three Sun Devil field goals had the chance to be true turning points, but instead they became footnotes in the eventual loss.
Despite the two offenses going in two completely different directions, the Sun Devils had a lead to start the fourth quarter due to the superlative play of the special teams unit.
Redshirt junior wide receiver Tim White scored the lone touchdown of the game on a kickoff return and junior punter Matt Haack and junior kicker Zane Gonzalez kept the Utes deep in their own end all night, much to the pleasure of Graham.
"Coach Slocum has done a great job with our special teams," Graham said. "We're playing better than we ever have in that area."
As the game came down to its final moments and the lights got brighter, the unit faltered, leading to the downfall of the Sun Devils.
With 13:15 left in the game, redshirt junior running back Gump Hayes fair caught a punt at his own 5-yard line instead of letting it go in the end zone for a touchback, setting off a string of events the Sun Devils could not recover from.
ASU went three-and-out on the drive, resulting in a punt by junior Matt Haack. Unfortunately for ASU, he uncorked the worst kick in his three seasons, allowing Utah to start its possession at the 32-yard line. Three plays later, the Utes had the lead.
The play did not get better for the Sun Devils on their next two drives, punting again and fumbling, letting all hope of a comeback vanish in an instant.
"That set of downs where we field the ball inside our five, have the short punt out of bounds, that hurt us," Graham said. "And then they score on the third down play and then the turnover on the read zone. That was the difference in the game."
Reach the reporter at mtonis@asu.edu or follow @Tonis_The_Tiger on Twitter.
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