ASU football entered Saturday night in a "must-win" situation against USC and well, didn't do great. At almost anything.
Here's how they graded out at each phase of the game:
ASU's offense, which had not been very good during the team's first three games, was actually the highlight for the team on Saturday. No, seriously. Head coach Todd Graham said so himself.
To be fair, the team did move the ball to 454 total yards and found success in the run game yet again with sophomore Demario Richard (14 carries, 131 yards and two touchdowns). On the other hand, they did not use the run game nearly enough and struggled to keep the ball out of USC's hands in fumbling twice on offense and throwing an interception.
The backbreaker came at the end of the first half, with redshirt senior quarterback Mike Bercovici fumbling after backup center Stephon McCray's bad snap, only to have USC recover it and take it 94 yards for the score. It marked the third straight game that ASU has had a first and goal from the 1-yard line and failed to convert.
The offense may have shown some flashes of greatness against USC, but the defense did not. While the unit did force USC's first turnover of the season on the Trojan's first drive (an interception by freshman Kareem Orr), it struggled mightily in one of the most basic aspects of the position — tackling.
This was particularly evident on third downs, on which USC went an astounding 9-for-15. Whether it was an under route to Steve Mitchell Jr. (four catches 66 yards and a touchdown), a pass in the flat to Adoree Jackson (three catches, 131 yards, one touchdown) or a bomb to JuJu Smith-Shuster (five catches, 103 yards and two touchdowns), there was no stopping Cody Kessler (19-for-33, 375 passing yards, five touchdowns and one interception).
Gosh, special teams were not good. This unit had the worst play of the night just seconds after USC's fumble recovery for a touchdown, as redshirt junior De'Chavon "Gump" Hayes inexplicably took the ball out of the end zone on a kickoff and subsequently fumbled.
Junior kicker Zane Gonzalez went 0-for-2 on kicks Saturday, making him 3-for-6 on the season.
To make matters worse, the punt unit wasn't much better. Punter Matt Haack did not land a single punt inside the 20-yard line and the coverage team allowed one 53-yard turn that was almost broken for a score.
The Sun Devils came into Saturday's game looking to show that they had made improvements from their loss against Texas A&M. Instead, they leave Tempe and head to Los Angeles next week after submitting their worst performance of the season thus far and again putting together a poor result in a nationally televised game.
Reach the reporter at fardaya@asu.edu or follow @fardaya15 on Twitter.
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