ASU Football: Another tough road test looms in Washington

ASU football head coach Herm Edwards addressed the media Monday after Saturday’s loss at San Diego State with the attention turning to No. 10 Washington.

The Sun Devils (2-1) are coming off a tough loss to San Diego State, 28-21. Now, the train makes it’s first Pac-12 stop of the 2018 season against No. 10 Washington.

“Pac-12 competition is going to start for us this weekend; obviously a road game against a very good opponent in Washington,” Edwards said. “Coach (Chris) Peterson has done a fabulous job of really developing a program in the time he’s been there.”

The Huskies began their Pac-12 slate in Week 3 against the Utah Utes. Peterson and his team went on the road and pulled out a 21-7 victory.

Edwards said he was excited about his team starting conference play, as it is completely new for him and the other first-year members of the staff.

“But more than that, we have nine games left in the season and we go into it with a record of 2-1 against a team that’s highly-touted and they should be,” Edwards said. They’ve got a veteran offense. They have some skill players at the wide receiver positions as well as the running back position.”

“Their defense is outstanding. One of the better defenses in college football in my opinion.”

No Sleep

When the Sun Devil football team made it back from San Diego, Edwards went to work right away.

“I didn’t go to bed Saturday night,” he said. “I came into the office, I didn’t go home. We got off the bus at 3:30 (a.m.) and I started watching the tape (SDSU game).

“Watched all three phases of it and put it to bed so when the coaches came in, when they were watching the tape, I could get into discussion with them about how we played and some things we gotta improve on.”

Darby Incompletion

ASU clawed its way back into the game against SDSU at the end of the fourth quarter. But the Sun Devils fell short after a deep pass to Frank Darby was ruled incomplete after being reviewed for a potential targeting call.

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“Well I think when a situation like that occurs, and they replay it because of the targeting act, the whole play gets reviewed, Edwards said. “If the targeting never happened then it probably wouldn’t have gotten reviewed and it did.”

Edwards explained that targeting is not a spot foul, but he believes that there will be some discussion after this season about that “maybe being changed”.

“But other than that, you know you’re looking at it and discussing it.. we lost. You don’t get the loss back. It doesn’t work that way in football. I learned that a long time ago. Nothing you can do about the past but learn from it.”

Darby is healthy and ready to for practice this week after the targeting hit on Saturday night, according to Edwards.

Road Woes

ASU is 4-15 away from home since the start of the 2015 season.

“We gotta improve our play on the road,” Edwards said. “We had a chance to win a road game and didn’t get it done against a good football team and I said that the week we played them (SDSU).”

With another big test on the road against Washington, Edwards and his team have hopes of improving the poor record.

“I think the guys that have played against Washington, they know what to expect,” Edwards said. “The young guys don’t know. We’ve got a lot of young guys and they’re gonna have to go in there and deal with it, deal with that atmosphere.”

Defending the Run

The Sun Devils entered last Saturday’s match-up against SDSU with the best rushing defense in the country. ASU only allowed 65 total rushing yards in its first two games, then gave up 311 yards on the ground to the Aztecs.

However, the Huskies can be more of a pass-first team led by senior quarterback Jake Browning.

“They’ll take vertical shots similar to what we do,” Edwards said. “They have some explosive players but they’re very balanced. They can run the football.”

UW is averaging over 156 rushing yards a game. Edwards hopes his team corrects alignment errors and missed tackles that happened in San Diego before this Saturday.

Improving Their Own Ground Game

ASU could not establish any sort of running game against SDSU. The Sun Devils ultimately finished with 36 yards, averaging just 1.5 yards a carry.

“They (SDSU) got after us pretty good on defense,” Edwards said. “The problem is you can’t get discouraged. You have to continue to run the football, I believe, in football games.”

ASU quarterback Manny Wilkins had 46 pass attempts against the Aztecs. He had 39 in Week 2 versus Michigan State where the Sun Devils rushed for only 44 yards.

“When you’re not balanced, that’s not good. And you can’t throw it as many times as we had to throw it on the road. That’s not a good formula.”

Emotions

The Sun Devils have had a resurgence of energy with Edwards at the helm. He is known for being a mentor and a motivator.

ASU players showed lots of emotion in the loss to SDSU, especially at the end when the targeting situation took place.

“Sidelines are emotional,” Edwards said. “You should actually get a broadcasting company and just film the sidelines of both teams while the game is being played live and just see how much emotion is over there.

“Sometimes you can get a camera on a guy in a moment, and all of a sudden.. I know Tom Brady. Tom Brady has some emotional outbursts. You know what that means to me? They care. They actually care, and that’s a good thing.”

Edwards explained that football is chaos as he often has before.

“There’s emotions from every guy that is on the bench, that’s not sitting on the bench. That’s the game of football. That’s the norm.”

Other Notes

Junior defensive end Darius Slade did not play against SDSU due to a thumb injury, according to Edwards.
- “We need him, we need all hands on deck playing these guys (Washington). Hopefully he’ll be available this week.”

Next. ASU Football: Inability to capitalize, lack of adjustment costs Sun Devils. dark

ASU has won its last 10 of the last 11 games against Washington.

All quotes in this article were obtained firsthand by Devils in Detail unless otherwise noted.

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