ASU Football: It’s the same old story on the road for Sun Devils

Even with Herm Edwards in charge, ASU football has continued to struggle away from Sun Devil Stadium after suffering their fourth road loss Saturday.

The last time Arizona State won a game in Eugene was 2004.

The last time ASU has sported a winning record on the road was 2014.

Since 2015, Arizona State is 5-15 in road games.

Saturday night’s 31-29 road defeat against Oregon exposed the elephant in the room that has loomed large over the Sun Devils program for the last four seasons: Winning on the road.

Despite 149 yards on the ground from Eno Benjamin and 105 receiving yards from N’Keal Harry, ASU fell just short of completing a 15-point comeback against a Ducks team that isn’t playing for anything other than pride.

The Sun Devils were playing for something. A win and they were a Territorial Cup victory away from winning the Pac-12 South.

Two wins and ASU is in the Rose Bowl. Three wins and ASU were Rose Bowl champions for the first time since 1987.

But it was that shadow, the shadow of road losses past, that came back to haunt the Sun Devils in the most crucial game of the season.

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The Sun Devils were 3-of-17 on third down; Manny Wilkins completed less than half of his passes (15-of-32) and the Sun Devils had over 100 fewer yards of offense than the Ducks despite holding Oregon to 85 total yards in the second half.

The return of Merlin Robertson in the second half and the decisive victory in the turnover battle (4-1 ASU) gave the Sun Devils a chance.

That chance that was quickly blown after a Manny Wilkins fumble gave Oregon the ball back with 3:02 remaining. An offsides penalty on a key 3rd-and-2 from the ASU defense with about two minutes remaining in the fourth sealed the Sun Devils’ fate.

Blown chances, a fitting theme for ASU on the road not this season but in the last handful of years.

Besides losing their previous three road games in 2018 by a touchdown, the Sun Devils in 2017 scored 45 points at Texas Tech but found a way to allow 52 points the other way.

Their other two road defeats, a 10-point loss to Stanford and a seven-point defeat to UCLA, means Arizona State has not lost a road game by more than two scores since 2016.

At Sun Devil Stadium, the narrative has been quite the opposite.

ASU is 12-5 in Tempe since 2016 with only two blowout losses coming against Utah in 2016 and USC in 2017.

Manny Wilkins’ narrative has been quite the opposite at home as well.

On the road this season, Wilkins’ fumble this week against Oregon and mere 12 completions against Washington putting the Sun Devils in a position to lose.

At home, Wilkins recorded his two greatest single-game passing yard totals and completion percentages of the season.

Similar story for N’Keal Harry.

On the road, Harry has had his two worst performances of the season. A three-catch, 62-yard day against San Diego State and a five-catch, 20-yard game at Washington.

In Tempe, Harry has had at least 84 receiving yards and has scored eight of his ten total touchdowns this season at home.

With the timer nearly up on Manny Wilkins’ career in Tempe, with the redshirt senior being one of the few constants since the start of ASU’s road woes, a change in the guard at the leadership position of quarterback may improve future road results for the Sun Devils.

But for now, ASU fans must sit back and wonder about what could have been this season, of the last four seasons, if the Sun Devils had just been average away from Tempe.