Smoked by the Sun Devils

As the saying goes, “where there’s smoke, there’s fire.”

We knew the embers were smoldering through the first six games of the season. And in the No. 23 Cardinal’s (4-3, 2-2 Pac-12) 26-10 loss to the No. 17 Arizona State Sun Devils (5-1, 3-1), those embers were finally set ablaze in the deserts of Tempe, Arizona, and the flames greedily devoured any Pac-12 title and college football playoff hopes that Stanford had left this season.

“There was not anything that we didn’t dominate tonight,” said Arizona State head coach Todd Graham after the game. “For us to go out and dominate a team that has dominated us? It’s a great night to be a Sun Devil.”

It was the essence of Stanford’s issues this season rolled into one microcosm of a game: the offensive line mightily struggled to open holes for the running backs, senior quarterback Kevin Hogan locked onto and threw inaccurately at his targets, and a battered defense finally gave way — not all the way, but just enough.

Not to say that it was the defense that gave way for the loss; while the defense broke down more than usual, the offense just broke.

While the stats will show that Stanford put up 288 yards of total offense, that doesn’t come even close to telling the whole story.

What does tell the story: Stanford was shut out in the first half for the first time since a Nov. 7, 2007 game against Washington State.

The story goes on. In that first half, it rushed for a whopping 5 yards — for an average of 16 inches per carry. It tallied 69 total yards of offense through two quarters. It had gone three-and-out three times against a defense that had allowed 207.2 rushing yards per game and 452.6 total yards per game heading into Saturday.

Hogan just never looked comfortable in the pocket, either. He was just 5-of-11 for 69 yards in the first half, and he was just forcing throws that weren’t there and missing — or just completely overlooking — receivers that were there. It took him until there were fewer than two minutes left in the first quarter to complete his first pass of the evening after missing on his first three attempts — part of back-to-back three-and-outs to start the game.

And with the offense having a futile day, the uncharacteristic struggles of the special teams fanned the flames and just made things worse.

It started with four minutes left in the second quarter, when Ty Montgomery took a punt that was sailing over his head and inexplicably tried to field it in order to make up for an offense that had been all but nonexistent. The over-the-shoulder catch failed and the ball bounced off his hands, letting an ASU player recover at the Stanford 12. The Sun Devils methodically drove for a touchdown.

While the offense showed signs of life to open the second half with a 12-play, 65-yard drive capped by a Jordan Williamson field goal and a fourth-quarter drive highlighted by two big plays that led to Stanford’s only touchdown of the night, special teams dropped the ball — literally.

With Stanford down 23-10 and needing two quick scoring drives to win the game, freshman Christian McCaffrey fumbled on the kickoff return and ASU recovered and scored another quick field goal to put away any doubts about the outcome.

A last-ditch two-minute drill attempt (fittingly) ended in the red zone with a jump ball in the direction of Montgomery that fell incomplete, ending the game. Hogan finished 19-of-39 for 212 yards.

Meanwhile, the defense — without the services of junior defensive tackle Aziz Shittu for the whole game and fifth-year senior defensive tackle David Parry for the second half — couldn’t get pressure on Arizona State backup quarterback Mike Bercovici, and Bercovici used the time to find his targets in space or rush through the gaps for first downs. And without sustained drives from the offense to spell them, the defenders got more and more gassed — and demoralized — as the game progressed.

Bercovici and the offense just kept chipping away, taking advantage of the weak defensive line to just take what the defense gave them, driving down the field like no other team had done to Stanford this year. Freshman Harrison Phillips, in his first collegiate game, just didn’t have the same push that Parry could provide up front. The Sun Devils scored on six of their 12 drives.

And when all was said and done, all the defense could do was stand and watch as Bercovici took the final knee of the game and walk off the field with the cheers of Sun Devil Stadium ringing in their ears, the scoreboard reading 26-10 — their biggest loss since the 2011 game against Oregon and the first time they had given up more than 17 points this season.

The last time the Stanford Cardinal walked off that field, they were riding high as repeat Pac-12 champions headed for a second consecutive Rose Bowl berth. This time, they walk off as a team that will fall out of the AP top 25 for the first time in 73 weeks, lose three games in a regular season for the first time since 2009 and have myriad more questions than answers on offense.

And eight weeks into the season, it’s looking like those questions may not have answers after all.

Contact Do-Hyoung Park at dpark027 ‘at’ stanford.edu.