Sun Devils’ defense reverts back to old self in loss to USC

TEMPE, Ariz. — For two weeks, it looked like the beleaguered Arizona State defense had turned a corner.

Saturday’s defensive effort conjured up memories of the 2016 Sun Devils’ defense, and that’s not a good thing.

USC ran all over ASU and left town with an easy 48-17 victory in front of an early-departing Homecoming crowd of 53,446 at Sun Devil Stadium.

The Trojans, who got to Arizona still licking their wounds from a 49-14 beatdown at the hands of Notre Dame last week, started early. Sam Darnold led USC on a 75-yard scoring march on its first possession, culminating in a beautiful 32-yard touchdown pass to Deontay Burnett.

They were just getting started.

ASU, who held Washington and Utah to a combined 17 points and 495 total yards in back-to-back conference wins, had no answers for anything USC did offensively. The Trojans had 31 points at halftime and racked up 607 total yards in the game — 341 of which came on the ground.

Much like Arizona State’s defenses the last couple of years, the Devils were victimized by poor tackling which led to big plays. ASU yielded three plays — including touchdown runs by Ronald Jones II of 64 and 67 yards — of 40 yards or more. They had given up only eight such plays through the season’s first seven games.

Many who were buying what ASU’s defense had been selling the last two weeks were a bit perplexed by the performance. Head coach Todd Graham wasn’t one of them.

“It’s not something we wanted to do, but their skill players are the best in the league,” Graham said. “There’s not anybody who’s got better skill players as far as their tailback, their wide receivers, and they had a good plan for what they did. They were very, very physical on the outside.”

About those skill players — Jones finished with 216 yards on only 18 carries. Vavae Malepeai had 68 more, averaging 6.2 yards per rush. In fact, the only lost yardage in the running game came on two sacks of Darnold in the first half. Every single one of USC’s traditional running plays gained yards.

The Sun Devils also had trouble getting off the field on third downs as the Trojans converted 7-of-15 opportunities.

“We had a lot of plays in there where it was third-and-five and you’ve got to challenge them,” Graham said. “And we kind of got back on our heels and they’d complete it and make the first down by half-a-foot or whatever.”

To Graham’s point, the Trojans converted 3-of-5 third downs of less than five yards. They were 50 percent (2-of-4) on third-and-long.

As uncharacteristic as ASU’s defensive struggles were, that was only the reversal of a two-week trend. Historically, the Sun Devils have been one of the least penalized teams in the nation under Graham. Since his arrival in 2012, ASU has averaged 37.3 penalty yards per game. Saturday, they drew 10 flags for 99 yards, including four personal foul penalties.

Two of them came on successive plays in the first quarter. Up 7-3, USC faced a third-and-12 at its own 23-yard line. As the play clock ticked down, the Trojans called a timeout, but ASU defensive tackle Tashon Smallwood didn’t hear the whistle and made minimal contact on Darnold. That gave USC a first down at the 38. On the next play, Smallwood was flagged for a 15-yard facemask penalty after a 5-yard run by Jones. He was taken out and received a talking-to from Graham.

Two plays later, Darnold hit Taylor Vaughns on a 42-yard touchdown pass to give USC a 14-3 lead.

Smallwood picked up a third personal foul in the fourth quarter.

But Graham wasn’t willing to chalk the loss up to too much penalty yardage.

“That’s not why we lost the game. We got outplayed,” Graham said. “Simply that. We got outplayed. Tonight, USC was the better team and they outplayed us and outcoached us.”

That theme has been consistent in the last three meetings between the teams. Since ASU’s improbable “Jael Mary” win over the Trojans in Los Angeles in 2014, USC has won the last three by a combined score of 131-51.

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