Analysis: BYU’s devastating loss to ASU will be remembered for its ending, but it was lost in first half

TEMPE, Arizona — BYU’s 28-23 loss to Arizona State on Saturday afternoon will be remembered by the BYU faithful for the Cougars coming up 2 yards too short and getting their second loss in what was once a magical season.
The way the Sun Devils’ fans prematurely stormed the field and almost cost their team a minimum of five yards of real estate in an absolutely wild finish at Mountain America Stadium will likely be rehashed from here to eternity as well.
But the real reason the Cougars (9-2, 6-2) came up short was that they got off to another abysmal start, offensively and defensively, and fell into a 21-0 hole of which they could never quite crawl out.
“We came out flat, both offense and defense,” said receiver Chase Roberts, who caught Jake Retzlaff’s Hail Mary attempt the last play of the game but was somewhere around the 2 yard line instead of in the end zone.
The pass was ruled incomplete on the field (and in the initial official stats), but it doesn’t really matter. It was a couple yards short.
“We didn’t play our game the first half. You saw it,” Roberts said.
BYU coach Kalani Sitake also didn’t whine about the ending in his postgame address to the media, instead praising the No. 21-ranked Sun Devils for their effort and saying the No. 14 Cougars will regroup and move forward after their second-straight excruciating loss when they couldn’t close the deal with their offense on the field in the final two minutes and needing a touchdown to pull victory from the jaws of defeat.
But instead of failing to pick up a crucial first down in the red zone, as what happened in the 17-13 loss to Kansas, the Cougars failed to take care of the ball when it mattered most.
On second-and-10 from the 39, Retzlaff lofted the ball in the direction of Darius Lassiter, but it was overthrown and landed in the hands of ASU’s Javan Robinson, who returned it to the BYU 7 with 1:04 left, getting ran down by Retzlaff himself.
A whole lot ensued after that, as previously mentioned, but in essence that was the ball game.
“Dang it. I mean, I love Jake, and the guys were clicking. Everything was working. It felt like we had the momentum,” Sitake said. “But credit Arizona State. They got the stop.”
Sitake chose to focus on what happened before that, a defensive play that allowed the Cougars to stay in the game with just over two minutes left.
BYU linebacker Isaiah Glasker stopped ASU quarterback Sam Leavitt’s fourth-and-inches run short of the line to gain, and the Cougars took over on their 11 with 2:34 left.
Retzlaff ran for 10 yards, then threw a 16-yarder to Lassiter and a pair of 7-yard pickups to Roberts.
After the Devils were flagged for defensive holding, Retzlaff had a wide open JoJo Phillips down the sideline for a potential game-winning touchdown but missed him by 2-3 yards. The next play, Robinson was gifted the pick.
“That interception was unfortunate, but that is the game of football,” Sitake said. “I want Jake to feel like he can be aggressive and make those plays, but he will learn from it. This was one of those fun games, it just hurts that we lost it.”
Retzlaff was not made available to the media after the loss.
“Obviously it hurts. We had chances to win, and obviously it sucks for us as an offense to play that way,” said BYU offensive lineman Connor Pay.
“Obviously we are going to need some chips to fall for us, but in a very real way we are still in the hunt for a bid to a conference championship game. … I hesitate to say there are any moral victories, but that was definitely a lot better than if we had laid down and got blown out.”
Until the end of the first half, it appeared the Cougars were not only going to get blown out, but shut out. ASU’s Cam Skattebo ran 23 yards for a touchdown with 1:53 left in the half to give ASU that 21-0 lead but decided to sign a football as part of his celebration and was flagged 15 yards.
The Cougars got the ball at the 35 after the penalty and moved into field goal range. Will Ferrin’s 49-yarder put BYU on the board and gave the Cougars a glimmer of hope heading into the break.
BYU obviously made a game of it in the second half, finding a running game, some better throws by Retzlaff and a more stout defense, but the damage was done.
“I think they could have quit at any moment,” Sitake said of the second half comeback. “It didn’t look great, especially in the first half. I am proud of the guys fighting back. Even when they had 28 points on the board, the guys just kept fighting.”
BYU has lived on the edge, played with fire, done it with smoke and mirrors — whatever you want to call it — almost all season, and for the second straight Saturday it caught up with them.
“We have got to get back on the winning track, and the way you do that is play better from the beginning to the end,” Sitake said. “If we can just put it together for 60 minutes, I feel good about our chances. Obviously we didn’t get that done this game.
“Arizona State did some good things. They scored, they possessed the clock and they got some first downs.”
BYU did, too, finishing with 26 to ASU’s 22 after the Sun Devils controlled the clock nearly the entire first half. BYU was credited for 391 yards (before Roberts’ late catch) and ASU had 401.
In the second half, the absolute back-breaker for BYU was a 61-yard touchdown pass from Leavitt to a wide-open Xavier Guillory. That blown coverage was incredibly costly.
“It was an honor to be on the field with them, and compete (despite all the field storming),” Sitake said. “It just did not work out our way, man. You can’t deny that it was a really good game. The sucky part is we had really good games the last two weeks, we have had to take them in the loss column twice.”
Another key moment came after Skattebo’s second touchdown run. He finished with 147 yards on 28 attempts.
The Sun Devils surprised BYU with an onside kick that hit safety Talan Alfrey and was recovered by Plas Johnson. Arizona took over at the 50 and needed just six plays to get into the end zone.
Sitake said the Cougars have practiced for onside kicks all season, but for some reason just weren’t ready for it then. He said putting the entire first team defense on the field after that was a mistake, because guys were tired and fresher guys could have been helped in that situation.
BYU’s defense played better in the second half, and kept Skattebo in check, for the most part. Sitake said that’s something they can build from.
“Their style of play is physical and we had to decide if we were going to match it, or not, and get run out of here or hold our ground,” he said of the second half. “And I am proud of the way the guys responded. We just have to do that before (the second half), from the get-go, but that is easier said than done. These are really good teams.”