• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Phoenix Sports Today

Phoenix Sports News Continuously Updated

  • Cardinals
  • Diamondbacks
  • Coyotes
  • Basketball
    • Mercury
    • Suns
  • Soccer
  • Colleges
    • Arizona State
    • Grand Canyon University
    • Northern Arizona
    • University of Arizona

ASU Football: Sun Devils collapse in second half, Utah wins 35-21

October 17, 2021 by House Of Sparky

Arizona State v Utah
Photo by Chris Gardner/Getty Images

That was rough

The term “A tale of two halves” is often thrown around loosely in sports. One team plays a good first half, and comes out flat in the second, and vice versa.

On Saturday night in Salt Lake City, the cliche was personified in the most profound of forms. Arizona State took a 14-point lead into the locker room at halftime, and may as well have not come back out.

Utah (4-2, 3-0 Pac-12) dominated the second half in every sense of the word, putting together five methodical, easy, and backbreaking touchdown drives while shutting out ASU (5-2, 2-1) en route to a 35-21 victory at Rice Eccles stadium.

The loss makes the Sun Devils’ route to a Pac-12 South title an unlikely one. The fact that it comes in this fashion? Hard to stomach. ASU committed 13 penalties, regressing in an area it had shown improvement in in recent weeks.

“It felt like Deja Vu really,” quarterback Jayden Daniels said. “It’s just very frustrating.”

For those looking for a reason for the infractions, the head coach couldn’t give one.

“I have no idea, I wish I could tell you,” Edwards said. “It reared its head again.”

Utah punished Arizona State in the second half’s opening drive, then did it again the next drive, and again, and one more time. That fourth touchdown drive that sealed the game took seven minutes off the clock, and nailed the coffin on the most disappointing loss in the Herm Edwards era.

The Utah defensive side of the ball also hit the cooler of secret stuff in the halftime locker room. They took a dynamic ASU offense, and made them look like a peewee group. The Sun Devils were held scoreless, and in their only red zone threat of the half, they held and sacked their way backwards. A 51-yard field goal try with the game tied at 21 missed badly, and Utah never looked back.

“Out-coached, out-played, just better execution by Utah,” defensive coordinator Antonio Pierce said when asked just what went wrong on defense.

It wasn’t all bad. Act one of the evening actually went quite well for ASU, beginning with the game’s opening drive.

Herm Edwards’ has been clear about how important it is to start fast on the road.

“You don’t necessarily have to score, but you gotta move the chains a few times on that first drive,” Edwards said last week.

In its opening drive Saturday night, his team checked those boxes and more. Jayden Daniels led a statement 75-yard march down the field, throwing for 65 yards, including a 7-yard touchdown strike to Jaylin Conyers to cap it.

In recent weeks, the often prophetic rise of the ASU pass catchers has become reality. This was exemplified early in the second quarter, when wideout LV Bunkley-Shelton contorted backwards to catch an errant pass from Daniels, spun on a dime to avoid a tackle, and was off to the races. The sophomore scampered 56 yards before being dropped inside the 5-yard line. On the next snap, Daniels kept the ball and bootlegged it out to the pylon for score.

As good as the Arizona State offense was in the first half, the defense may have been even better. The Utes scored seven points in the opening half, and gained just 90 yards on their last five drives going into the break.

The name of the game? Takeaways.

Two key interceptions made by linebacker Darien Butler and safety Kejuan Markham kept Utah off the board.

The impressive first half will be a footnote, obviously, but the positives are ones to build upon.

The ASU team that went to the locker room at halftime was not the same team that emerged from it. On its first two possessions of the second half, the Utah offense kicked it into high gear, and received little to no resistance from an Arizona State defense that has been lights out in the second half of late. The Sun Devil defense allowed more points in the second half Saturday than it did in its first six games combined.

As Arizona State’s ugly fate became apparent in the waning minutes of the game, a week of talk about a wide open conference and control of destiny seemed laughable. As it has a number of times in recent years, ASU football stared opportunity in the face, and wilted.

Filed Under: Arizona State

Primary Sidebar

Recent Posts

  • Diamondbacks 5, Angels 6: Far From Perfect
  • Game Recap: Summer Suns dominate the Summer Wizards, 103-84
  • Jalen Green on deal to Phoenix: ‘I had a feeling. They’ve been trying to trade me since last year’
  • Jalen Green on deal to Phoenix: ‘I had a feeling. They’ve been trying to trade me since last year’
  • Arizona volleyball gets 2 big commitments for 2027

Categories

Archives

Our Partners

All Sports

  • 247 Sports
  • ArizonaSports.com - 98.7 FM
  • Bleacher Report
  • Heat Waved
  • OurSports Central
  • The Arizona Republic
  • The Sports Fan Journal
  • USA Today

Baseball

  • Arizona Diamondbacks
  • AZ Snake Pit
  • Last Word On Baseball
  • MLB Trade Rumors
  • Venom Strikes

Basketball

  • Phoenix Suns
  • Amico Hoops
  • Basketball Insiders
  • Bright Side Of The Sun
  • High Post Hoops
  • Hoops Hype
  • Hoops Rumors
  • Last Word On Pro Basketball
  • Pro Basketball Talk
  • Real GM
  • Valley Of The Suns

Football

  • Arizona Cardinals
  • Cardinals Gab
  • Cards Wire
  • Deep Dive
  • Last Word On Pro Football
  • NFL Trade Rumors
  • Our Turf Football
  • Pro Football Rumors
  • Pro Football Talk
  • Raising Zona
  • Revenge Of The Birds
  • Words From The Birds

Hockey

  • Elite Prospects
  • Five For Howling
  • Howlin Hockey
  • Last Word On Hockey
  • Pro Hockey Rumors
  • Pro Hockey Talk
  • The Hockey Writers

Soccer

  • Last Word on Soccer
  • MLS Multiplex

College

  • AZ Desert Swarm
  • Busting Brackets
  • College Football News
  • College Sports Madness
  • Devils In Detail
  • House Of Sparky
  • Last Word On College Basketball - Univ of Arizona
  • Saturday Blitz
  • Zags Blog
  • Zona Zealots

Copyright © 2025 · Magazine Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in