Arizona State trending in the right direction heading in to bye week

The 14th Annual (excluding 2020) Blackout game has come and gone, and for the second straight season, the Sun Devils have come away with a key win against a ranked team. Last year it was a field-storming win over No. 16 Utah, this year the victim was No. 24 TCU following a major storm.

Despite the early deficit, there was much more good than bad to take away from this game. There is always opportunity to improve, and we'll dive in to what we learned from Friday's win.

The Good

Defensive Secondary

I would like to begin this segment by issuing a formal apology to the Sun Devil secondary. We raised a lot of alarms about the state of the defense with so many injured pieces, and they must have heard all the noise because they have been nothing short of impressive against three straight high powered offenses.

Hot take: When the defense holds teams 150 yards or more below their per game average, that is generally a good thing. Faced with a 17-0 hole with 6:24 remaining in the first half, the Sun Devil defense buckled down to allow just 7 points the rest of the way, allowing the offense to pick their way back to the win.

Winning the turnover battle helped matters, with two interceptions and one fumble recovery against TCU's one fumble. More on how the offense capitalized on those turnovers later, but the defense has more than stepped up with the prolonged absense of Xavion Alford and the added absense of Montana Warren.

Sun Devil Grounds Crew

Coach Dillingham opened his postgame comments with a huge shoutout to the grounds crew for having the field in ready to play condition after Friday's intense weather, and it was incredibly well deserved.

From the field designs to overall condition, this tireless crew deserves every single bit of appreciation for their efforts week in and week out.

Blackout Uniforms

Look good, play good. That's a major mantra heard all around sports, and the Sun Devils more than looked good on Friday night. I was initially skeptical when Arizona State first unveiled blackout uniforms 14 years ago, but I am in full support if these uniforms were to be used more than just once a year.

These uniforms just looked intimidating. Clean and simple, with the best feature (to be) being the single outline of the pitchfork on the helmet. Everybody loves Sparky, myself included, but these send chills down my spine every time I see them.

The Bad

Red Zone Offense

Call it questionable play calling, call it a lack of progression from Sam Leavitt, but the offense consistently ground to a halt inside the 20 yard line. Sam took it on himself for the offensive struggles in the red zone, which I highly commend him for. The Devils were 4-for-5 in red zone trips, but two drives inside the 10 ended in field goals rather than touchdowns. Sam said later in his comments that he felt the Devils should have put up 45 points against TCU with the opportunities they had.

TCU Running Game

We knew coming in that TCU didn't have the greatest rushing attack, but good lord were they atrocious on Friday night. No complaints here of course, as their 25 rushing attempts resulted in a net of only 10 yards thanks to the Sun Devil defensive front. They kept the pressure in the backfield, recording 6 sacks and an incredible 13 tackles for loss. Hoover was never able to regain the comfort he had on TCU's first four drives.

The Ugly

The Weather

This is a bit of an uncontrollable factor, but that heavy downpour raised some creeping thoughts of how good the turnout would be for Friday night. Huge credit to the 942 Crew for coming early and bringing the noise all game long.

The severe weather couldn't stop even the most dedicated tailgaters, staying true to their craft and braving it all this week.

Kicking - All Of It

Friday was not a banner day for any part of the Arizona State kicking game. Jesús Gomez missed two field goals (46 and 43 yards). Matthew McKenzie only recorded an average of 27.5 yards on his two punts, the longest going for 29 yards. Gomez also had back-to-back subpar kicks, a squib kick to open the third quarter that looked more like an onside kick, followed by a kick out of bounds after his game-tying 26 yard field goal. Some of that can be attributed to the lingering conditions, but certainly an area to shore up over the bye week.

Looking Forward

The Sun Devils will enjoy a much needed bye week, as shown in Coach Dillingham's comments postgame. They will face off with Utah on the road in Salt Lake City on October 11th, and return home for a tilt with Texas Tech on October 18th that could potentially be a preview of the Big 12 championship game.