With Saturday's 40-16 loss to Colorado, ASU football fell to 5-2 on the season, but within that record lies a 1-2 mark on the road.
Are they a good team? Maybe — but we do know that they are absolutely abysmal on the road.
Football teams usually play worse on the road. The fans are against you, the field conditions can be odd and the weather is different.
ASU was blown out in both of their Pac-12 road games. Both times, the opposition scored at least 40 points, and both times the Sun Devils were out of it by halftime.
The only road game the Sun Devils won this year was at University of Texas San Antonio, an average team in the lower-tier Conference USA. ASU needed a second half rally to comeback and win that game against an inferior opponent.
I understand losing on the road, but looking like one of the worst teams in college football in doing so is inexcusable.
Colorado absolutely destroyed ASU. Offensively and defensively, the Buffaloes stomped the Sun Devils.
Specifically, Colorado piled up 580 yards on the Sun Devils. ASU had no answer for the Buffaloes offense, as they were marching up and down the field with ease.
The Sun Devils tackling issues continued as well. There were countless times when a CU player would break through the line because ASU defenders were unable to take him to the ground.
No player benefitted more from ASU's porous defense than CU junior running back Phillip Lindsay, who scampered for 219 rushing yards and three touchdowns on the night.
Lindsay had wide open space for most of the night, and when he was "contained" he bounced off ASU tacklers like a pinball.
WATCH: Recap of Colorado's 40-16 win over Arizona State #TheRise pic.twitter.com/0qRuYldFDr
— Colorado Football (@RunRalphieRun) October 16, 2016
It felt like all the defensive improvement that the Sun Devils showed against UCLA went completely out the window. ASU defenders were tackling guys in space, stopping the running game and effectively rushing the quarterback.
The Sun Devils did not come close to doing any of that on Saturday night. All of the improvements on defense seem like they happened years ago after last night's shoddy showing.
Everything just seemed so easy for the Buffaloes. The game looked like a varsity versus JV scrimmage where the varsity squad could do whatever they wanted.
Except the varsity team was not ASU on this night.
And it's not that the Sun Devils lost — it's that they had no chance from the first kickoff.
Like I said, teams generally don't play as well on the road, but ASU looks like a completely different team on Saturday — and not in a good way.
The coaching staff has to fix this problem. ASU may not be a great team, but they are certainly good enough to at least put up a fight against a team on the road.
That's the thing: these aren't close losses. The Sun Devils are getting boat raced from the minute the game starts.
ASU is lucky that senior kicker Zane Gonzalez is nailing 50+ yard field goals, otherwise the score could have been much uglier.
There's three more road games on the schedule, and if ASU wants to be considered a good team, then they can't get blown out. Period.
Reach the columnist at mpharri7@asu.edu or follow @Harris_Mark7 on Twitter.
Like State Press Sports on Facebook and follow @statepressport on Twitter.
