On the brink of being bowl-eligible, ASU fell 24-14 to Cincinnati and is 5-2 heading into the bye week.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Not having starting quarterback Sam Leavitt under center, Jeff Sims and the Sun Devils were in the game all the way until the fourth quarter when a field goal miss by Ian Hershey proved to be costly. If Hershey were to have made a 48-yard attempt, Arizona State would be down by one touchdown and had 5:58 left to regain possession.
While the finger could be pointed at Hershey and Sims for ASU’s shortcomings, head coach Kenny Dillingham took responsibility for not putting them in the best situations to score and successfully do their jobs. Arizona State went for it on fourth down twice and didn’t convert on either drive earlier before deciding to attempt field goals later on.
Going 0-for-5 on third-down conversions in the first half, Dillingham talked about how it impacted the way to call plays and praised his team for its will to keep going despite the adversity.
“When you don’t convert third downs, a third down in the first half or convert the fourth downs, it stalled out. When we got stalled out, then you cannot be aggressive. If we were to convert a third down in the first half or a fourth down in the first half, then we could have been aggressive on a first or second down. We didn’t have enough plays or sustain enough drives to try to get the shot game going like we did in the second half.
“I am proud of our guys. We were a kick away, a third and two away. Our guys battled and that’s what I appreciate from our guys is that we were right there, but we didn’t get it done. They battled, they fought and they competed.”
Even though the scoreboard reflects that Arizona State struggled, the numbers said otherwise.
Giving their team a fighting chance, the Sun Devils’ defense shut out the Bearcats in the second half. Cincinnati was worse on third down conversions than ASU was, just 3-for-12 compared to 4-for-12 by Arizona State. ASU still produced 346 yards of offense while Cincinnati had 61 more, 407.
Cincinnati’s first-half execution proved to be the ultimate decider, as Arizona State was held to a single touchdown and the Bearcats had 24 points.
Giving Cincinnati the credit the program deserved, Dillingham admitted the Sun Devils played a strong football team that was simply better than his on the day and looks forward to how ASU responds with a bye.
“Kudos to Cincinnati, they beat us today. They outcoached us, they outplayed us, they did everything to win that football game. They got good players too and they did a good job. We got to do a better job of getting our players ready to play,” Dillingham said. “I told the team in the locker room like we played an earlier game this year [against Texas Tech] that we lost and that I felt that we coulda won.
“We coulda won this game, but they beat us. They deserved to win that football game. Their backs were against the wall and they created a turnover in the first quarter. They responded, they won the downs that mattered. When that happens, you gotta tip your hat to your opponent and you got to look at yourself and the staff and say what do we got to do better? How do we grow now that we are 5-2 at the bye? Let’s get healthy for this last stretch.”
*Get the BEST Phoenix sports insider information, and exclusive content. SIGN UP HEREÂ to unlock our premium content!*
Reporter Alec Cipollini covers the Phoenix Mercury, Suns and ASU Athletics for Burn City Sports. You can follow him on his X account, @AlecCipollini
