Arizona State made some great half-time adjustments in this one resulting in a shut-out of the Bearcats after the break. But having already given up 24 points in the first half and getting shut-out themselves in the 2nd and 4th Qtr it was too late in a 24-14 loss on the road—now 5-and-2 overall and 2-2 in conference. The Sun Devils had some opportunities in this one but missed two field goals and fumbled the ball in their own red zone after taking a 7-0 lead to start the game which led to a Cincinnati TD just two plays later and a 7-7 score half-way through the 1st Qtr. Arizona State would have the ball five more times in the first half but ended up punting three times and handed the ball back over on downs the other two. In the meantime the Bearcats would score two more TD’s and a field goal to go up 24-7 at the break.
After the break Cincinnati wouldn’t score another single point as I mentioned at the start while the Sun Devils would score a TD with a little over two minutes left in the 3rd Qtr to make it 24-14 where it would stay after missing two field goals in the 4th. For Arizona State, their terrific Senior RB Cam Skattebo was responsible for all the scoring rushing 17 times for 75 yards and 2 TD’s and is now averaging 100+ yards per game—on pace for a 1,000+ yard season—with 9 TD’s on the year so far. For the Bearcats it was the ground game where they scored all three of their TD’s with Senior RB Corey Kiner, Junior RB Evan Pryor and Sophomore QB Brendon Sorsby collectively rushing 33 times for 195 yards with Sorsby carrying 2 into the end zone and Pryor the other. Cincinnati led in 1st downs, 23-18; total yards of offense, 407-346; were successful on 50% of their 4th down completion attempts, and had possession of the ball 9.5 minutes longer.
In the AP Recap of the game for ESPN they added a section called, “Kicking Themselves,” in which they wrote; “Despite struggling offensively for much of the game, the Sun Devils had multiple chances to cut into the Bearcats lead in the fourth quarter. But Hershey missed wide left on two field goal attempts from 48 and 41 yards, respectively.” Regarding that, Arizona State head coach Kenny Dillingham had a not so subtle message for their current Sophomore Place Kicker Ian Hershey who is just 2-for-6 on the year and said; “You know you hope you can make one of those kicks, but our kicking game is atrocious. If you can kick and you’re at Arizona State, e-mail me. We’re going to have kicking tryouts on Monday. Seriously, let’s go. We’re going to put it out on social (media).” Ouch!