The rain falling steadily in Berkeley on Saturday was symbolic of what the day’s game did to the ASU football team’s momentum.
Any hope of turning around what has been a frustrating season and reaching the seven wins needed to qualify for a bowl was dampened when California crushed the Sun Devils 50-17 behind an endless offensive assault.
The Sun Devils struggled on both sides of the ball at Memorial Stadium, yielding 371 yards while only gaining 234, and the Golden Bears remained undefeated at home this season.
“Everything you can do to a lose football game we did,” ASU coach Dennis Erickson said. “You have to give them credit. They came out after what happened to them last week and played extremely well, ran the football, played great defense and great special teams. There was no aspect of the game we came close to competing in with them. It came out of nowhere, and I am very surprised that it happened.”
ASU’s struggles were not confined to just offense and defense as they allowed a punt return for a touchdown and made numerous mistakes on special teams.
The Sun Devils gave up 26 points in the first half, allowing five Golden Bear drives to go for points.
The second half wasn’t much better, as ASU gave up three touchdowns and a field goal, including a blocked punt return for a touchdown.
Erickson said it was the worst tackling performance of the season by his defense, as the Sun Devils missed a number of chances to bring Cal players down either for loss or little gain.
“I couldn’t tell you [why we struggled tackling] because I missed a few tackles myself,” junior Brandon Magee said. “Maybe we can do some tackling drills next week. I’d like to do some tackling drills next week.”
ASU scored on its first possession after a pass through the hands of a Cal defender found the hands of junior receiver T.J. Simpson to set up an eventual field goal.
That may have been the highlight of the game for ASU.
The Sun Devils gave up multiple scores on short fields as the combination of a futile offense, in which redshirt junior quarterback Steven Threet threw two interceptions, and a poor defense and special teams yielded a season high in points allowed.
After improving its penalty struggles against Washington, the Sun Devils reverted to old form and were flagged nine times for 72 yards Saturday.
ASU was able to make the final score a little more aesthetically pleasing as junior linebacker Oliver Aaron returned a punt blocked by redshirt junior Colin Parker for a touchdown and junior safety Clint Floyd took a recovered fumble to the end zone.
The Sun Devils were shut down for most of the contest, however, unable to move the ball on offense through the pass or the run finishing with an average of just over two yards per carry and five yards per pass attempt in the contest. After their first drive, which could have easily been an interception, the Sun Devils had one first down the remainder of the first half.
“This is two steps back,” Erickson said. “Two steps back. We have taken a lot of steps forward in this program this year. And now we get blindsided. To me, we’ve made a lot of progress, but this knocked us back. Now we get to see what we’re made of. I don’t think we quit, but we got our rear-ends kicked.”
Cal junior running back Shane Vereen carried the ball 19 times for 94 yards and two touchdowns while senior quarterback Kevin Riley threw for 225 yards and two touchdowns on 19-of-28 passing, despite being sacked three times.
Threet struggled in the first half, completing eight of sixteen passes for 125 yards before leaving the game with a concussion, which Erickson said he suffered at the end of the first half. With sophomore Brock Osweiler out with a bad back, Erickson went with third-string junior quarterback Samson Szakacsy who played the second half, finishing with six completions in 13 attempts for 132 yards and an interception. “I felt like a freshman,” Szakacsy said. “I just felt rusty a little bit. I wanted to go in there and repeat like last year and fall out and do my best.”
Szakacsy said that the current ASU offense’s success hinges on pinpoint execution, perhaps more so than other offenses around the country. Whichever quarterback starts for the Sun Devils down the stretch, they will have to improve it to have a chance at winning the requisite four out of five games to be bowl eligible.
“The past couple of years has kind of been that trend when we kind of start tanking,” Szakacsy said. “I don’t feel like that is our attitude right now. It just hurts, especially after the win against Washington when we started really feeling like we had momentum on our side and turning the train around and getting it in the right direction.”
Notes
Junior linebacker Shelly Lyons suffered a broken foot. Oliver Aaron also suffered a concussion, Erickson said.
Reach the reporter at nick.ruland@asu.edu
