ASU Football: Sun Devils continue trend of seven-point losses

ASU football is left disappointed again after their fourth seven-point loss of the season as they are tired of the same story playing out.

Manny Wilkins was visibly emotional and frustrated after Thursday’s loss, the fourth loss of the season with every single defeat decided by a touchdown.

“I’m just not proud of myself on taking care of the football. Two turnovers on my part is completely inexcusable. I’m beating myself over that,” Wilkins said. “Felt like I let the team down. Got to be smarter and give us a chance at the end.”

Arizona State got the ball back with 2:20 left and no timeouts looking to tie the game.

The Sun Devils drove all the way to the Stanford 20 with 12 seconds remaining. Pressured in the pocket, Wilkins dumped it off underneath to running back Eno Benjamin.

Benjamin was tackled in bounds and the time ran out.

Wilkins was really hard on himself about the final play.

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“They did a really good just fishing out what we had going on and in my head I knew just not to take a sack,” he said. “I should have thrown at Eno’s feet instead, I threw at his chest and he caught it. Just poor football, clock management and spatial awareness on my part”

It was an NFL-style game with both defenses stuffing out each other’s rushing offenses, just like how head coach Herm Edwards prefers.

“The game turned out how I anticipated it. It was going to be a close-fought game, problem is for us offensively, turnovers and the fouls were critical,” Edwards said. “We fell short and just ran out of time and that’s how it’s been for the four games we’ve lost. They’ve all kind of ended the same way, with a thud.”

Arizona State’s penalties and turnover is what ultimately turned the tide of a competitive game that was pretty even through out. Stanford’s six first half points came via Sun Devil turnovers as they led 6-3 at the halftime interval.

“Early on in that game though, the three points we get, the interception we threw in the red zone,” Wilkins said. “You take those back and you get a field goal there or a touchdown, one of those two things, it’s a different ballgame.”

The Sun Devils came out strong to begin the second half, but were forced to settle for another field goal as the Sun Devils couldn’t capitalize in the red zone.

It wasn’t until 7:50 remaining in the fourth quarter that Arizona State was able to find the end zone.

Despite the strong defensive play of both sides, and the offense’s struggles to score points, they had a chance to tie the game on the game’s final possession.

“I like their effort. They play hard. It’s never over for these kids. They keep coming, keep fighting no matter how bad it looks,” Edwards said. “It looked bad for a while and then all of the sudden, a couple of plays and the energy goes up and we’re back in the ballgame. We just ran out of time.”

Wide receiver Frank Darby, who finished with three catches for 53 yards, discussed what needs to be done to buck the streak of tight losses.

“I think we need to fix the mental errors. We need to play hard and just finish more plays. I just feel we are right there and we just got to get over this hump,” Darby said. “I don’t know what it is, but it’s something that’s got to be fixed in practice. It’s a seven-point game again and we just have to get over that hump.”

Wilkins is frustrated of coming up short.

“I’m sick and tied of coming in here always saying ‘one play away.’ We just got to fix it.”

dark. Next. ASU Football: Sun Devils mistakes too much to overcome

The Sun Devils will look to break the trend next Saturday with a tough divisional road game against USC.

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

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