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Arizona State Sun Devils

Takeaways From Arizona State’s 27-24 Loss to Colorado

It was another step in the right direction for coach Kenny Dillingham’s program after a 27-24 loss to Colorado. Arizona State’s offense had 392 total yards of offense and got off to a fast start to the game when they scored their first opening touchdown of the season.

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Unfortunately, after an impressive first half of offense that saw them score 17 points. They only managed to score 7 in the second half as Arizona State struggled to put scoring drives together until the final offensive drive to tie the game.

Shedeur Sanders would respond on a game-winning drive by connecting with wide receiver Javon Antonio for a 43-yard hookup to get Colorado in field goal range.

Shortly after, Alejandro Mata hit the game-winning field with 12 seconds to go in the game as Arizona State had no chance inside their own 20-yard line.

Here are my 3 takeaways from Arizona State’s 27-24 loss tonight vs. Colorado.

The Offense Parted the Red Sea:

When I say the middle of the field was wide open for the majority of the game, I legitimately mean the middle of the field was wide-open and Arizona State took advantage of it early and often and Elijah Badger feasted because of it.

Elijah Badger had 16 targets and caught the ball 12 times for 134 yards in the loss on Saturday. The majority of his catches were off-screen plays or dig routes and it allowed Trenton Bourguet to play efficient clean football for the majority of the game.

Bourguet for the game passed for 335 yards, threw 1 touchdown, and rushed for another. ASU’s offense gained 25 first downs throughout the contest and a big reason for this was due to how much space the offense had to work with throughout the middle of the field.

After the game, Bourguet talked about his game and thought that he could’ve done more to help them win the game.

The key for ASU is to get off to better starts in the second half of games moving forward. They had a chance to win this game if they had just put drives together in the third quarter.

Unfortunately, they’re going to have to settle with their 5th straight loss on the season.

Penalties Killed Momentum in the 2nd Half:

Arizona State is usually really good at limiting penalties as they rank 9th in the nation in penalties given up at 3.8 a game.

They basically tripled that out in today’s game vs. Colorado as they had 9 penalties resulting in 88 yards for the game and the majority of them came in the second half of a close contest against Colorado.

One resulted in a touchdown play before the half as ASU got called for roughing the passer to put Colorado in a manageable position to score a game-tying touchdown.

These penalties didn’t sit well with head coach Kenny Dillingham as he discussed after the game how frustrating it was to see his team commit so many sloppy penalties.

As they go into the bye week next week, Dillingham said he’ll look at the tape in regards to what they did wrong with the amount of penalties this past week.

This leads to my last takeaway from the game as they head into the bye week.

Health is the Priority:

Whether it’s sickness or actual injuries, Arizona State has to find a way to stay healthy going into the second half of the season to give head coach Kenny Dillingham something to work with.

Going into this game, Arizona State had 10 players out due to injury. Skattebo and Conyers had little impact in today’s game due to missing practices this week because of sickness.

Dillingham’s message to the team and to the media after tonight’s game is to get healthy going into the season after the bye week.

WATCH: Kenny Dillingham Says Health is his Bye Week Wish

Arizona State will be on a bye next week and then will continue their season the following week against seventh-ranked Washington on the road.

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