After the Sun Devils piled up 28 points against a really good BYU defense, I came in here and said that offensive coordinator Marcus Arroyo called his best game of the year, and the margin wasn't exactly close. Well, the Arizona State play caller outdid himself just one week later.
Heading into a grudge match with the Arizona Wildcats, competing for the oldest rivalry trophy in college football history, the Sun Devils weren't exactly facing the kind of long odds they overcame to beat Kansas State or BYU in the previous two weeks.
Favored by 7.5 points, it was the Sun Devils' largest spread of the year. The Wildcats also represented the worst defense, statistically speaking, that Arizona State had faced all year. For Arroyo, this wasn't exactly his toughest battle.
Still, blowout wins have been rare for Arizona State this year. Just two of their games all season long were decided by three or more scores. Both came against teams (Wyoming and Oklahoma State) that managed to win just three games. Wyoming drew the Sun Devils in the season opener in the first year under a new head coach, while Oklahoma State's defense was ravaged by injuries by the time they hosted Arizona State.
Arizona, on the other hand, wasn't short on talent. They have a deep rotation of pass rushers, featuring Ta'iTa'i Uiagalelei, Lance Keneley, and Stanley Ta'uFo'ou. Their linebacking corps was heralded coming into the year. And the secondary has likely NFL draft picks in Tacario Davis, Genesis Smith, and Marquis Groves-Killebrew.
Despite all that, Arizona's defense has been abysmal all year long. The bottom seemed to fall out in November, as they gave up 56 points to UCF and 49 points to TCU. However, those two games were sandwiching a standout performance against Houston in which they yielded zero touchdowns and allowed only one field goal.
Still, Arizona came into this game against Arizona State giving up just over 30 points a game. But Arroyo's unit hit 35 points in just one half and finished with 49 points in total.
He did so with a very similar game plan to what carried the Sun Devils to victory over the Cougars the week before. That is to say a healthy helping of Cam Skattebo right from the jump. The superstar running back and Heisman contender saw 15 of his 21 total carries in the first half. He took those 15 carries for a total of 111 yards and three touchdowns.
As was the case against BYU, this easily opened up the passing game for quarterback Sam Leavitt, who also had a stellar first half. He hit on 75% of his passes in the first half and racked up 234 yards through the air with two touchdowns. When Arroyo dipped into his two-minute drill right before halftime, Leavitt connected on four of his five attempts and tallied 70 yards alone, capping it off with a touchdown to tight end Chamon Metayer.
The second half saw Arroyo keep his foot on the gas pedal, though he was a bit more strategic with some of his best players. Receiver Jordyn Tyson, who ended up suffering an injury in the game that will sideline him this week in the Big 12 title game, saw just one target in the second half. Skattebo received just five carries. And Leavitt dropped back just six times.
Backup running back Kyson Brown got some work instead, as did walk-on receiver Derek Eusebio. Brown took the ball just eight times, but he managed to pile up 100 yards of rushing and add 31 receiving yards on a screen. Eusebio, who was a standout in spring ball but hadn't caught a pass yet this year, took his one target - a screen pass - 64 yards to the house.
Arroyo once again delivered a game plan that was focused on giving his quarterback layups. Leavitt used play action on 38.5% of his dropbacks and just over a third of his passes were screens. And a bulk of both came out of the pistol sets Arroyo has now fully integrated into this offense, which is when Arizona State is at its best.
Despite all the downhill running and quick passes, Arroyo hasn't abandoned the downfield passing element either. A majority of Leavitt's attempts did come within 10 yards, but he took four shots of 20+ yards downfield and connected on two of them, both being touchdowns. Arroyo has developed a great sense for his young quarterback and the perfect timing on when to go deep after forcing defenses to load the box.
Arroyo's approach wasn't necessarily anything revolutionary, and was fairly similar to what he ran against BYU, but this game proved that his approach can do more than just get a lead and grind the clock out. Arroyo's offense is capable of blowing out bad teams, which is exactly what they did this past week.
Arroyo's next test? Replicating that same success without Tyson, who has accounted for nearly 41% of Leavitt's passing yards on the year.