JUST OUT OF ASU’S GRASP
Sun Devils drop another close one
BOULDER, Colo. – Herm Edwards had no doubt that the right call on fourth-and-goal early in the fourth quarter against No. 22 Colorado on Saturday was to play for a touchdown instead of a field goal.
But was it really the correct decision? ASU trailed 28-21 with more than 13 minutes remaining, and kicker Brandon Ruiz almost certainly would have a converted what was essentially an extra point to draw within four.
Instead, a pass attempt from quarterback Man-
ny Wilkins to 6-foot-8 Curtis Hodges, defended by 6-3 cornerback Delrick Abrams, went incomplete. ASU punted on its only other possession, suffering its third consecutive road loss, all by seven points, before a near sellout crowd of 52,681 at Folsom Field.
The Sun Devils dropped to 3-3 and 1-2 in the Pac-12 ahead of a bye week. They also lost 28-21 at San Diego State and 2720 at No. 10 Washington.
Colorado improved to 5-0 for the first time since 1998 and 2-0 in the conference.
“You are the underdog, you’re on the road, you just had a nice drive and you feel like you’ve got momentum, you can go in and score and tie it up,” Edwards said. “The strategy wasn’t real difficult. If we kick the field goal, we’re still down four points and we’ve still got to score a touchdown.
“You guys have seen me before. I’m going for it. If we’re going to win a game, you gotta make that. Plain and simple. We have to score a touchdown, period. Maybe a long time ago I didn’t feel that way. The way I do it, there’s fourth-down situations when I think we need to do it and if we don’t make it then we don’t deserve it.”
Wilkins’ 72-yard bomb to Frank Darby on the next-to-last play of the third quarter – a play put in on the fly because of how Colorado was drawing up its safeties against the run – gave ASU a chance to immediately counter the Buffs taking their first lead.
On first-and-goal from the 3-yard line, Eno Benjamin ran for a yard. The second play went awry when Wilkins had trouble taking the snap on a designed bootleg and was sacked by defensive end Mustafa Johnson for an 8-yard loss.
“I thought I could evade him and shoot toward the end zone,” Wilkins said. “I guess the smarter decision would have been to just throw it away. I got a little tripped up, but that didn’t affect anything. I’ll put that on me. That sack in the gold zone, I can’t do that. We need to get points there, and that’s on me.”
Offensive coordinator Rob Likens said he was not prepared for a big loss setting up third-and-goal at the 10, forcing ASU to take its second timeout of the half. The first timeout came before a punt in the third quarter, leaving the Sun Devils with just one timeout to use when Colorado was running out the final 7:10.
“That’s all on me,” Likens said. “I had to get another personnel grouping out there because if we just threw it out of bounds (not taking a sack), we were going to come back with the same grouping and try to punch it in there (running). That got me off schedule and had to burn the timeout, which hurt us. I can’t do that.”
Wilkins, under duress from Colorado’s rush, got 7 yards back on a thirddown pass to Kyle Williams. Then on fourth down, he had an option to throw a fade to N’Keal Harry or Hodges, choosing the latter without success.
“I knew they were going to come my way because (Hodges) is 6-8,” Colorado’s Abrams said. “He’s a big receiver, but it came out our way.”
Harry, ASU’s All-American wide receiver candidate, continued to play periodically after taking a major hit on a punt return from linebacker Drew Lewis in the third quarter but was limping with an apparent leg injury. Lewis was knocked out of bounds on that play but ran back on to the field to blindside Harry.
“It was pretty bizarre,” Lewis said. “I got pushed out of bounds and kept on going. I knew the play was still going on. I don’t think Number 1 (Harry) saw me at all. It felt pretty good.”
Colorado moved to midfield on its next possession before punting, giving ASU another chance with 8:01 left. But the Sun Devils could not get a first down, and the Buffs put away just their second win ever over ASU behind running back Travon McMillian.
“That was a really special ending there,” Colorado coach Mike MacIntyre said of a 13-play, game-ending drive. The Buffs finished with 494 total yards (328 passing by quarterback Steven Montez, 166 rushing) and almost a seven-minute edge in time of possession.
“We’re playing just good enough to be in ballgames, we’re not helping us win,” ASU defensive coordinator Danny Gonzales said. “You give up almost 500 yards offense, you don’t deserve to win. I didn’t think (Montez) would throw for that many. We couldn’t tackle them out on the perimeter then late in the game they started to maul us up front.”
ASU led three times by a touchdown, the last 21-14 after a lightning 75yard scoring drive coming out of halftime capped by Wilkins’ 40-yard pass to Darby.
The game was tied at 21 late in the third quarter when Colorado’s Davis Price shanked a punt 28 yards that would have given ASU possession at the Buffs’ 35-yard line. But because Darien Cornay lined up offsides, Davis got a second chance and hit a 45-yarder, forcing the Sun Devils to start instead at their 43-yard line.
On ASU’s final five possessions, four ended in punts and the other on downs after the fourth-and-goal incompletion.
Benjamin, coming off his schoolrecord 312 yards rushing against Oregon State, had 20 carries for 96 yards at halftime only to finish with 28 for 120.
“They started putting as many people as they can in the box and dared you to throw it deep,” Likens said. “They started doing some good things on defense. I tried to keep them off balance, then we kind of petered out.
“It’s not on the defense. You can’t score on the 3-yard line, you don’t deserve to win the game.”
The consensus then, from ASU’s main coaches no less, is that ASU got what it deserved: a loss that will make bowl qualifying dicey over a challenging second half of Edwards’ first season.