HOUSTON — From Tempe to Bristol, the ASU football team has received high praise from fans and pundits alike, resulting in the highest expectations around a Sun Devil football team in recent memory. Saturday's season-opener against Texas A&M was supposed to be the team's coming out party. But, like many parties around ASU's campus, it was busted up quickly, rudely and without warning.
The Sun Devils (0-1) fell to the Aggies at NRG Stadium in Houston 38-17 Saturday, raising more questions than answers about Todd Graham's 2015 squad.
Early on, the game played to a stalemate, as both defenses came out swinging. Over the first six combined drives of the first half, neither team could generate any semblance of an offensive rhythm, gaining a grand total of 70 yards on 25 plays.
Then, the Aggies offense got going. Starting their fourth drive on their own 6-yard line after junior punter Matt Haack's best kick of the game, sophomore quarterback Kyle Allen orchestrated a nine play, 94-yard drive that cut over, around and through the Sun Devil defense to give Texas A&M a lead.
After ASU's first possession of the second quarter fizzled like their first few, tragedy struck. Haack's punt was nearly blocked, then it was caught by freshman wide receiver Christian Kirk, who took it 79 yards to the end zone for a 14-0 lead.
Another miscue in the special teams department that will be lost in the shuffle due to it having no immediate negative consequence was a roughing the punter penalty by redshirt freshman Coltin Gerhart that kept an Aggie drive alive. Texas A&M eventually turned the ball over on downs, but it was another example of undisciplined play by ASU.
While ASU spent most of fall camp hyping up its new-and-improved special teams, the Shawn Slocum-coached special teams unit looks just as uncomfortable as last year's, losing the field position battle nearly every step of the way.
Despite the offense running into a wall and the special teams faltering, the defense continued to stand tall, getting after Allen and forcing a fumble that resulted in ASU's first score of the game: a four yard pass from Bercovici to redshirt junior tight end Kody Kohl.
ASU's offense was essentially stifled for the first 40 minutes of the game, as the Sun Devils' longest of their first 12 drives went just 28 yards.on six plays. Haack punted 10 times.
"I thought we'd throw the ball with more efficiency," Graham said. "We didn't run the ball very good either. We didn't do much very good at all offensively."
ASU's offense was left stumbling by junior defensive end Daeshon Hall and sophomore defensive end Myles Garrett. The vaunted defensive line duo harassed redshirt senior quarterback Mike Bercovici all night, totaling six sacks between them. Hall's four is tied for the second most in Texas A&M history only behind Alex Morris' five in 1987.
Graham was disappointed in the play of his offensive line, a unit he said was the best he's had during his tenure at ASU, and its ability to hold back the advance of Texas A&M's linemen.
"We were just letting them tee off," Graham said. "You have to vary your count. Myles across the line of scrimmage when the ball was snapped. He was getting off the ball better than we were on offense."
In addition to Texas A&M's nine total sacks, the defense hit Bercovici five more times on throws, making him spend a lot of time on the turf. Those negative plays led to the offense never getting in a real rhythm
With the score 24-17 with around four minutes remaining, the Sun Devils still had a chance to pull the game out. That's when an old nemesis came back to plague the Sun Devils once again, the almighty "explosive play."
On second down and one on their own 34-yard line, Allen dropped a quick pass to Kirk who turned upfield and weaved in and out of danger, taking the ball in for the game's clinching touchdown. For a defense that had played well all night and preached not giving up long plays, the score was a killer blow that resulted in ASU losing the game.
Graham said the most frustrating part of that play was it was a coverage the team runs very regularly and the defensive backfield missed their spots and it ended up clinching a loss.
"The bubble was just pretty frustrating because we had obviously run that pressure a million times and our safety is supposed to be down to six yards," Graham said. "We made a mistake and obviously they capitalized on it."
In spite of the myriad of disappointing plays, there are some glimmers of hope for the season. Bercovici acknowledged both the strengths and weaknesses, concluding the only thing you can from this: work has to be done.
"There were some flashes of us doing some good things, running the ball and moving the ball down the field fast," Bercovici said. "But at the end of the day, we didn't come out ahead, and we've got to move forward from it."
Reach the reporter at mtonis@asu.edu or follow @Tonis_The_Tiger on Twitter.
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