The ASU football team's new offense didn’t get off to the greatest of starts on its first drive of the season Saturday, causing just a little bit of doubt to creep into the heads of the ASU faithful.
Those doubts were quickly erased as the Sun Devils' offense dominated the rest of the way and rolled to a 54-9 victory over Portland State in front of 43,238 at Sun Devil Stadium.
“No disrespect to anybody, but we had some speed out there that they had a little trouble matching up with,” ASU coach Dennis Erickson said. “We were able to take advantage of that. Since I’ve been here, 54 points is the most we’ve scored.”
State Press Television Andrew Boven
The 54 points scored was the most tallied by ASU (1-0) since 2005.
The first offensive possession looked a lot like the previous two years; there was a pair of drops by the wide receivers, a false start penalty and a badly overthrown pass by the quarterback resulting in a three and out.
PSU used the early defensive stop to garner some momentum on offense. The Vikings drove into ASU territory on their first possession and sophomore kicker Zach Brown connected on his first of three field goals of the night to put PSU up 3-0.
That’s when junior quarterback Steven Threet and the ASU offense found their rhythm. Threet used his arm and his legs to bring the Sun Devils to midfield.
Sophomore running back Cameron Marshall took it from there, using a huge hole generated from the left side of the offensive line and a block from junior tight end Trevor Kohl to scamper into the end zone for a 50-yard touchdown.
After an interception by junior safety Eddie Elder, Marshall rattled off another big touchdown run, this time from 38 yards.
In a matter of minutes, Marshall had racked up 99 yards on the ground on just three carries.
On the next PSU possession, Elder hit junior quarterback Connor Kavanaugh in the end zone, causing an intentional grounding penalty that resulted in a safety. The safety was the first recorded by the Sun Devils since 2007.
A 53-yard field goal from Brown cut ASU’s lead to 16-6 early in the second quarter, but a Threet touchdown pass to freshman running back Deantre Lewis and another Marshall touchdown run blew the game open at the half.
On ASU’s first possession of the second half, Threet fired a quick screen pass to Lewis, who used his dazzling speed to change directions, cut across the field and take it 62 yards into the end zone.
“He just has another gear and he can take it to the house,” Erickson said of Lewis. “We had more long plays [tonight than] in a long time here and he’s a part of it. He brings something different than we have had here the last couple years.”
Sophomore running back Jamal Miles and Lewis would both add rushing touchdowns to cap the giant day from the ASU running backs.
All seven of ASU’s touchdowns on Saturday were scored by the running backs.
“The holes were open, so a big shout out to the line and the tight end for leading the blocking,” Marshall said. “We just had a productive day rushing.”
Threet finished 14-of-21 for 239 yards and two touchdowns. The 239 yards passing is the most ever in an ASU quarterback’s debut.
His lone interception came on a tipped pass and many of his incomplete passes were drops from the ASU wide receivers.
“He played well,” Erickson said. “He had four or five balls dropped. He made great decisions, did things at the line of scrimmage really well, played within himself and made some awfully good throws. I thought it was an outstanding performance for the first time out.”
Threet looked poised and in command of the offense. All that he wanted to do was run the offense to the best of his ability.
“That’s really all I tried to do,” Threet said. “Just come out and execute the offense. The plays were there, I just tried to make them.”
The Sun Devils put up 553 yards of total offense, including 242 yards on the ground. Marshall led the way with 104 rushing yards on just four carries.
“I think we did well,” Threet said. “I think it started with the offensive line, and they really dominated the scrimmage for us. They did a phenomenal job in the run game by opening up huge holes for the backs and then in the passing game the protection.”
In his first game as a Sun Devil, Lewis caught three passes for 100 yards and two scores. Lewis also ran for 24 yards and a touchdown on five carries.
“These guys [Marshall and Lewis] get the ball in their hands with space and they’re tough to take down one-on-one,” Threet said. “It’s not going to happen often.”
Despite all the positives, there still were areas of concern to Erickson. The dropped passes were a concern and ASU committed 11 penalties that resulted in 93 yards for PSU. Penalties have hurt the Sun Devils much in the past two years.
“Too many penalties. We had three personal fouls that were what I call dumb penalties,” Erickson said. “Those are controllable by our football team and we had them and it’s ridiculous. Those will end up costing us in another game and our players are very aware of that.”
With all of the positives in the win, it was against an FCS team that has struggled mightily over the course of the past few years.
“It is what it is,” Erickson said. “What happened tonight was what was supposed to happen. We have to just keep getting better, because I think we have a chance to be a decent team.”
Reach the reporter at andrew.gruman@asu.edu
