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Locked On Sun Devils - Daily Podcast On Arizona State Sun Devils Football & Basketball

Arizona State Sun Devils football's run game gets an A+ grade in win over Mississippi State Bulldogs

Arizona State Sun Devils football is 2-0 to start the season after a statement win over the Mississippi State Bulldogs football program. It delivered the Sun Devils its first-ever win over an SEC program while showing their progress from year one to year two under Kenny Dillingham. The win featured several strong performances headlined by Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week Cameron Skattebo and his nation-high 297 scrimmage yards including 262 rushing yards. As a whole, the team played well. Still, it wasn't without its warts including a nonexistent passing attack, the failure to counter the Bulldogs' second-half adjustments, and some uncharacteristic and costly penalties. Host Richie Bradshaw takes a look at Arizona State Sun Devils football in their win over the Mississippi State Bulldogs and hands out grades for each position along with the coaching staff and an overall grade for the team's win on this edition of the Locked On Sun Devils podcast.

Duration:
40m
Broadcast on:
09 Sep 2024
Audio Format:
mp3

Arizona State Sun Devils football is 2-0 to start the season after a statement win over the Mississippi State Bulldogs football program. It delivered the Sun Devils its first-ever win over an SEC program while showing their progress from year one to year two under Kenny Dillingham. The win featured several strong performances headlined by Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week Cameron Skattebo and his nation-high 297 scrimmage yards including 262 rushing yards. As a whole, the team played well. Still, it wasn't without its warts including a nonexistent passing attack, the failure to counter the Bulldogs' second-half adjustments, and some uncharacteristic and costly penalties. Host Richie Bradshaw takes a look at Arizona State Sun Devils football in their win over the Mississippi State Bulldogs and hands out grades for each position along with the coaching staff and an overall grade for the team's win on this edition of the Locked On Sun Devils podcast.

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[MUSIC PLAYING] It's the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Five-hour energy shots give you the feeling of alertness and energy you need to get in the zone and get things done. With zero sugar, a convenient portable size, and coming in several flavors like watermelon, tropical burst, or my personal favorite grape, it's exactly what you need to get through the day. Head to 5hourenergy.com, the set of our 5hourenergy.com, and use our code LockdownCFB to receive 20% off your order. This offer is only valid until September 30th on one order and cannot be used with other promotions. The code is not good on subscription orders. Go to 5hourenergy.com today. If you are looking to refinance or get alone right now, let me tell you about inter-cap lending. Inter-cap lending is one of the largest independent lenders in the country. They are hyper-responsive. They embrace change, and their borrower experience is absolutely fabulous. 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You are locked on Sun Devils, your daily podcast on the Arizona State Sun Devils. Part of the locked-on podcast network, your team, every day. Welcome back to the locked-on Sun Devils podcast, part of the locked-on podcast network, your team, every day. My name is Richie Bradshan. I will be your guide for everything Arizona State Sun Devils. A special shout-out to my every dayers who are here every day. And thanks to all of you for making us your first listen of the day. Don't forget to hit like, hit subscribe, and turn on notifications wherever you're getting your shows. Stay in touch by following me on Twitter, Richie Brad's 36. The podcast at 00_Sun Devils. Do me a solid. If you have not hit subscribe on YouTube yet, help me out. We are closing in on 1,000 followers as of today, 930. We are 70 followers away. I think we can get this easily before the end of the month, be the person who helps us get there, and we will find a way to celebrate together as a channel. Today's episode is brought to you by Five Hour Energy. Go to 5hourenergy.com. That's the number fiveenergy.com. Use my promo code locked on CFV and get 20% off of your order. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back in to today's edition of the Locked on Sun Devils podcast. We're going to have some fun. We are going to hand out some grades. I talked about last week actually incorporating a number scale from 0 to 100. I did that this week, so that'll be fun. We're going through the offense, so position groups, quarterback, running back, receiver, tight end, offensive line. Defense will be the three levels, so defensive line, linebackers, and the secondary. And then we'll round out with the coaching, which will include Kenny Dillingham as a head coach, Marcus O'Rourke, calling players on offense, Brian Ward, calling players on defense, and an overall grade for the team that will be a collective average from each positional group. Well, start on offense, let's start with quarterback. And I'm not going to lie to you. This was certainly a down week at the quarterback position. I gave him a D plus, 68 out of 100. I'll tell you right now, the one thing that saved this performance was Sam Levitz running. On the day through the air, 10 of 20 for 69 yards. 50% completion under four yards per attempt. 6.9 yards per completion. The passing game was nonexistent. Now, there is something we're going to explore later on in the podcast that has to do with not asking Sam Levitz to throw the football. And by the time you did ask him to throw the football, he wasn't in a rhythm. And you could see that he just was not there as a passer. This was not a team that was trying to do 50/50, or even 60/40 when it came to splitting the passing game and the running game. And to a certain extent, you understand that because ASU's running game, which we'll talk about here in a moment, was historically great for the program. It was one of the most outstanding performances you'll ever see, especially from an individual in particular. So you didn't need to pass the ball, but when Mississippi State made adjustments in the second half and they started coming back at a rapid pace and all of a sudden you can't pass the football, that is a problem. And it led to ASU really struggling on third down conversions when Mississippi State was stacking the line, stuffing the run and daring you to throw it. They weren't afraid of your passing game and it showed. This was a really bad week through the air. The only thing that saved them was Sam Levitz once again is a dynamic runner. 11 carry, 68 yards, two scores for this team. The two touchdowns that came on the offensive side of the football both came from Sam Levitz. And he is his special as a runner. Last week we saw him have a really quality game against Wyoming. One of the questions I had was, is this going to be something we see on a week to week basis? This looks like something we're going to see on a week to week basis. I'm not ready to call him Jaden Daniels. I'm not ready to call him Manny Wilkins. I did see a comparison from one Jordan Simone who got to play with this guy that he is Taylor Kelly. And again, I'm going to slow down on that because if you listen to this podcast, and this is an older episode that we did this, but I believe Taylor Kelly is one of the three greatest quarterbacks in Sun Devil history. Only behind Danny White and Jake the Snake. You can let me know how you feel about that. But in terms of like, as a player, I could totally understand that because Levitz is an underrated passer when he gets into a rhythm, which he wasn't able to do in this game. And he can beat you as a runner, but more importantly, he's someone that is just able to maneuver the pocket, make off schedule plays. It wasn't seen as much in this game, which leads to a really low grade. But thankfully, what he was able to do as a runner was phenomenal. And because of that ASU's ground game was even more effective than it was from one individual, but you were able to save what was otherwise a bad performance, especially when you consider they had 69 passing yards. Same Levitz had 68 rushing yards. Keep in mind he was sacked once in this game. So he had more rushing yards than he did passing yards. Sometimes you just gotta be able to make some plays, whether it's through the air on the ground. Sam Levitz made the adjustment and he was able to pick up his performance, which is gonna save him from a worse grade. Running backs, I gave him a perfect grade. A plus 100 out of 100 Cameron's Gannaboo and elite performance, a historic performance for the Sun Devils. 33 carries, 262 yards. The second most in a game in Sun Devil history, I asked you guys yesterday, if you knew who was first, the answer is Eno Benjamin in 2018 against Oregon State, he ran for 312 yards. So pretty big cushion over second place, but Gannaboo was a friggin beast, man. And this is also with a Mississippi State team that in the second half stacked the line and challenged ASU to beat them with anyone besides Scataboo. So there was a point in time where he slowed down a bit that wasn't even really his fault. The bulldogs were just selling out on the run. And when it came down to crunch time, the final drive of the game, Scataboo got right back to what he was doing in the first half with chunk yards and was able to get the first downs. He ran for a 39 yards, excuse me, not on the score, a 39 yard run to ultimately seal the game. It was the dagger. He could have potentially scored a touchdown, but he was a very selfless player in this game, decides to slide down, stay in bounds, and ASU was able to drain out the clock. Can't ask for anything more of that. This was an outstanding performance. There was a little bit of contribution behind him to Carlos Brooks, eight carries, 24 yards, and Kyson Brown, two carries, five yards. So 10 carries for 29 yards, not that great, but you didn't need them to be great in this game. But my prediction of the Carlos Brooks, leading the team in rushing yards this past weekend, doesn't look pretty good, but neither here nor there. Scataboo was absolutely dominant, carried this unit by himself, perfect score. Wide receivers, C minus, and I feel like that's probably a little generous. I am giving them a 71 out of 70, or not a 70, a 71 out of 100 here. And again, I feel like this is probably pretty generous on my part, 'cause they were non-factors. They really did not do anything in this game. Your leader was Xavier Guillory, two catches, 14 yards. Other than that, Stovall had a single catch, which he turned into, sorry, my page read fresh for some reason, nine yards, and Jordan Tyson caught two passes for 70 yards. Tyson had quite a few targets. They weren't on target. So that makes it really tough, in my opinion, to give them a worse grade than a C minus because I don't necessarily think that this game was their fault. It's not like they dropped five passes. It's not like they were unable to get open in this game. That wasn't the issue. The issue was the passing game was not in sync. Nonetheless, sometimes you just gotta find a way to step up. They weren't able to do that in this game. But again, that's not necessarily their fault. This is not slander of the receiver position. They just didn't produce. So, I mean, you just gotta call it as it is and move forward. So we'll move forward. Tight end, I'm also giving them a C minus, slightly better than receiver. I'm gonna go 72 out of 100 here. They also did not have much to do in this game. They only had two catches for 40 yards. Marquesse and Douglas made his first catch of the season, one catch for three yards. Shimometer, caught one pass for one yard. They had almost nothing to do in the passing game. Do you thought the receivers didn't produce? The tight ends were about as non-existent as it gets. But with that being said, they were really gonna run game. And that's where they're able to pick up that grade from me. In a game where ASU ran for 359 yards on 54 carries and got two touchdowns, the tight end position was absolutely part of that. Marquesse and Douglas elite blocker. And you could see that on display when he was lining up inside in line for the team. Terrific. So yeah, you got next to nothing from them out of the passing game. But at the end of the day, they gave you so much in the ground game that you can't give them anything worse than a C minus. The offensive line, I'm gonna go with a B plus, an 87 out of 100. The reason why I was not able to give them an A is because in the second half they got bullied. They killed it in the first half. ASU ran wild in this game. They were able to carve out lanes. Cameron's got to be was able to get skinny and they had chunk play after chunk play after chunk play. Second half, when Mississippi State made adjustments, they controlled the line of scrimmage. And in fairness, it's a little easier for the defense to control the line of scrimmage when you're sending seven guys against five guys. I understand, which is why I'm not slandering them too much, but you still have to be able to create some lanes. And there was missed blocks in this game. They allowed a single sack of Sam Levitt. I feel like Levitt once again did some really good work as a runner, which he was able to get out of some pressure. And it wasn't a perfect performance, but you know what? On the final drive of the game, they played great. Outside of Lee Photaniu's 15 yard personal foul penalty, other than that, it was a really good drive to end the game where Scaddaboo was able to find holes once again. When it mattered most, the offensive line stepped up. I'm giving them a rock solid B 87 out of 100. We're gonna flip to the defensive side of the football, where we're gonna go through the defensive line, the linebackers and the secondary, all of which, spoiler alert, had pretty quality performances. We're gonna preview that and grade them here in just a moment. This is a locked on some of those five cats, part of a locked on podcast network, your team, every day. Five hour energy is one of our sponsors for today and they fix tired fast, whether you have a long list to do at work or a list of DIY projects to tackle at home. Take a five hour energy shot so you can check off everything on your list. If you're like me, you always have a large list of projects for home. When you need supplies for the project, don't forget the most essential supply, which is that five hour energy shot. Five hour energy is the brand hardworking people like you have trusted for 20 years to give them alert, energized feeling they need to get through a busy and hectic day. You always know where to find that five hour energy shot too. It's right at the cash register of nearly every convenience, drug and grocery store, nationwide, stock up on money-saving multi-packs too. When you check out the website, make sure you never run out of delicious energizing five hour energy shots. If you go to fivehourenergy.com, that's the number five, energy.com. Get yourself some five hour energy product today. You can use my promo code locked on CFB and receive 20% off your order. Keep in mind, this offer is only valid until September 30th on one order, cannot be used with other promotions. The code is not good on subscription orders. Again, go to fivehourenergy.com. That's the number five, energy.com today. Use my promo code locked on CFB and get 20% off of your order. - You know, we love talking stats here at Lockdown. Here's one that's super simple to remember. Discover automatically doubles the cashback you've earned on your credit card at the end of your first year with cashback match. That means with Discover, you could turn $150 cashback to $300. That's right, you could put it towards some memorabilia you've had your eye on or treat yourself to a premium sports network. You earn and discover doubles. See terms at discover.com/creditcard. Wherever you get your shows, hit like, subscribe and turn on those notifications so you get that update when we post new content. A special shout out to Meridaire's who are here every day, but thanks to all of you for tuning in every day, making us your first lesson of the day. Let's create a defense. Once again, really strong performance. From start to mostly finish, they dominated. The first half, once again, they were unstoppable. They were the immovable object that Mississippi State could not get passed in this game. They were unable to get anything going on the run game. Once again, this team surrendered 26 carries for just 30 yards. They were able to get an aftershaping three times to deliver sacks, two of them from the defensive line, which is where we'll start this conversation. The D line, given them a flat A, 95 out of 100. They controlled the line of scrimmage. Again, like I said, 26 carries for 30 yards in this game. They delivered two of ASU's three sacks coming from Elijah O'Neill and coming from Jacob Rich Congaika from the interior of the line. They held shape into seven carries for negative 22 yards. He had a long of seven yards, a quarterback that is a dual threat for all intents and purposes, and someone that we previewed going into this game as a threat to the Sun Devils, a big time threat to the Sun Devils because of that ability to break the pocket, beat you as a runner and make the off-script plays. The defensive line controlled them and they controlled the rest of the ground game as well. KVON Lee, their leading rusher, nine carries, 35 yards. He got a late score in the game, under four yards per carry. Kevin Coleman won carry nine yards. Devon Booth, six carries seven yards. Johnny Daniels, three carries one yard. You couldn't run on them. Now, the one thing that I'm curious about and this does not have to do with their performance, it's just something I'm concerned with moving forward, is the injuries. The interior of the line, all four of your key players. Jeff Clark, who missed the game flat out, did not get to suit up for this game. CJ Fite, Jacob Rich, Congaika and Zach Swanson were all banged up during this game and taken off of the field. Fite made his return onto the field. I'm pretty sure Swanson and Congaika were able to get back there as well, but I'm really hoping that they're able to stay on top of their game. When they went down, that's when Mississippi State was able to get a little bit going in the ground game. When you don't have that deep interior defensive line, this is where you start to wonder if teams in the future can expose the Sun Devils defense. Now, again, this is predicated on injuries which I never like to predict injuries. I just wanna make sure these guys stay 100% healthy. Otherwise, you're just not gonna run on them this year. Ed Drushers played really well. Elijah O'Neal had a sack back-to-back games. The guy that we picked to be one of the biggest breakouts on the Sun Devils team this year once again showed up. He's a beast, he's a monster. I just know that this is a sign of things to come. I would not be surprised if he ended up at that sixth sack mark, which was tied for first last year between BJ Green and Prince Dorvoff. The only guy I see finishing ahead of him is Clayton Smith, who was able to force a fumble, a tackle for a loss, which in my opinion should have been a sack. I do not like that they did not shock up that tackle as a sack for Clayton Smith, but he was able to force a fumble because shaping, unfortunately, was just trying to do much. You're just trying to do too much. Sometimes as a quarterback, you gotta tip your cap and take your loss. You get sacked, it is what it is. Do you want him to throw it away? Yeah, of course you do. You don't want to lose the yardage, but sometimes you just need to. And that was the case for shaping right here, who unfortunately tried to throw the ball away and it just slipped out of his hands as Clayton Smith was bringing him down. CJ fight, defense a tackle, picks it up for a big man touchdown. He ballerina danced his way into the end zone. It was phenomenal. The body control that he showed, as he's running to the sidelines with the momentum carrying him, extends the ball out to break the pile on. Dude, you can't do it better than that. So back to back weeks now, ASU has recorded a defensive touchdown. They have three on the air. Four turnovers, three of them have been returned from scores, or returned four scores, excuse me. Defense is balling out right now. Two turnovers from the defensive line. Both of them have been returned for touchdowns. A in this game, 95 out of 100. Line backer, same grade. A, 95 out of 100. Once again, these guys helped contain Blake Schapen. They were playing sideline to sideline. They were able to stuff holes and they just dominated the line of scrimmage with the defensive line opening things up for them. It was another great performance from Keisha on Elliott. Five tackles, two of them solo. Got a sack and a TFL. He was great. He is going to be one of the most productive players for this defense by the end of the year. I said he's gonna be a box score stuffer. He's on his way. Already has an interception and a pick six, by the way. No, no, no, no, no. He was the one who didn't score. Xirus via Sayu, who we'll talk about in a second, got the score. He has an interception. Now he has a fumble. He's gonna box score stuff this year. It's gonna be phenomenal. Speaking of Xirus via Sayu though, this is linebacker two. ASU's got some depth this year and I will be curious what happens when Tate Romney eventually makes his back what back to the back. Oh my goodness. Makes his way back to the lineup. Curious how that's going to unfold. But in the meantime, PSA was a beast. He is so good. So good. Next to Keisha on Elliott. You can't imagine a better duo between these guys. The depth is there too. Caleb McCullough was able to grab four tackles for himself. Good game from the linebackers. 95 out of 100. The secondary. This is the lowest grade on the defense. I'm giving them a flat B85 out of 100. They were really good in the first half. Shaping had some open receivers. I'll be it. But the defensive line was able to help some bad throws which allowed the defensive backs to make sure that they were able to make plays. The one that I remember was very early in the game. Shaping took a shot deep down the far left sideline and was pretty close to completing it. But Javan Robinson had good coverage and the ball was able to go incomplete. So they did a pretty good job covering these guys in the first half. Second half, completely different story. They gave up an 80 yard touchdown which ultimately put Mississippi State within two scores. I want to say that was the score that put them. Yes, it definitely was. It was a score that put them within seven. That was a scary, scary play. And it was a huge game changer. And that was the play that you were wondering if the secondary was going to be able to hold up. Now, outside of that 80 yard touchdown and a rocky second half, they overall had a really good game. Once again, the secondary led the team in tackles. Once again, Miles Ghost Rouser led the team in tackles. Of the 58 team tackles they had, the DB's had 30 of them. Top three tacklers from the game, by the way, were your safeties. Miles Rouser was able to record 10 with four solo. Chamari Simmons, who continues to be awesome from the nickel spot. Seven tackles, four solo. Zavion Alford, your third safeties, six tackles, one solo. They killed it. This safety position is such a difference maker for the team. Secondary played a rock solid game. There's work to be done, but from start to finish, for the most part, or from top to bottom, I mean, it was a quality game. We're going to talk about coaching here to round things out. We're going to take a look at Kenny and Marcus Royal at Brian Ward, and an overall average grade for the performance of this team and win over Mississippi State. Coming up next, this is the lock-on-sundables podcast, part of the lock-on podcast network, your team every day. This episode is also sponsored to you by I Bada. If you are taking that dream vacation this summer, or this winter, or this fall, but you're dreading the cost with I Bada, you can get cash on all your purchases, all of them. Grocery stores, everything. You can spend more time making memories with your upcoming trips, and less time dreaming about them. I Bada is a free app that lets you earn cash back every time you shop. Earn on hundreds of items, from groceries to beauty supplies, even toys, so you can make sure that you're beating inflation, no matter what you're purchasing. The average I Bada user makes $256 a year. That can cover the cost of an entire shopping trip. 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One last time wherever you get your shows, hit like, hit subscribe, turn on notifications so you get an update when we post new content. Shout out to my every dayers who are here every day. Thank you so much for making us your first listen of the day. Let's round this episode out with the coaching, which was up and down. And we'll start with Kenny Dillingham's who I'm giving a B minus in this game, 82 out of 100. This was an overall well coach game I felt. The problem was, and Kenny said this himself in the post game conference as he started to overrule Marcus Arroyo's offensive play con. And they were really stubborn with the run game and they removed the passing game. You had 20 passing attempts in this game that only went for 10 completions. And a big portion of the reason why that happened was Sam Levitt was thrown out of a rhythm. He was not able to consistently get the opportunity to throw the ball down the field, throw the ball anywhere, really. And surprise, surprise, it's going to lead to a poor performance. Now, of course, the run game was great. 54 carries as a team for 359 yards. One of those carries, by the way, included the single sack on Sam Levitt. This was a dominant running game. And it's not a surprise at all that Kenny Dillingham would want to push the running game the way he did when you have that kind of success. But when your offensive coordinator is trying to call a balanced game to make sure you don't get into those situations, you probably need to allow your coordinator to have a little more say in the offense. And again, Kenny said that, and this is not Kenny Dillingham's slander. It's just something that he said himself. You dominated the time of possession in this game, though. 40 minutes and 13 seconds compared to 19 minutes and 17 seconds, time of possession for ASU. They ran the ball, which chewed up the clock. They also dominated on defense, which forced three and outs from Mississippi State. They really did not get anything going until that second half of the Bulldogs. Other than that, you killed it, man. And they did a really good job calling that game. This was a bad week in penalties, though. Nine penalties for 85 yards. That includes Lee Fotanu's 15-yard personal foul penalty on the last drive of the game. This was not a disciplined team the way that we saw them last week, where they had three penalties with two of those being delay games. ASU was got to get better. This was a very undisciplined performance, which we're not really used to seeing from Kenny Dillingham coach teams. They were very good last year. They were excellent last week. They have got to get better this upcoming week. It felt like they, in the second half, it felt like they really started to get into their own heads, and it led to poor decisions, poor play, and poor execution. Got to get better there. Kenny Dillingham, 82 out of 100. Marcus Royal, flat B, 85 out of 100. Hold a great running game, obviously, 359 yards. One of the greatest performances in Sun Devil history. Cameron Scadaboo, he leaned on him, and that was very much the right decision. 33 carries went to Scadaboo, out of the team's 54 total carries. That's the right thing to do when he is going. Now, do I wish they mixed it up? Yes, of course. The Carlos Brooks only getting eight carries in this game when he ran the ball 54 times. I personally don't find that ideal. Now, he wasn't as effective in this game. He only had 24 yards with a long and five. He was not nearly the big play guy that he was in week one against Wyoming. Is what it is, I still would have liked to have seen him, did a few more carries to balance things out, and yeah, it would have sapped away some of Scadaboo's touches, but that keeps him a little bit fresher, in my opinion. Other than that, no, I mean, you dialed up a really good running game. Passing game obviously wasn't there, but part of that was kind of Kenny's decision to be so run heavy. So it is on a royal, for sure. That's not a 100% on Kenny thing. You probably give it about a 50/50, maybe a little more to Kenny. The biggest issue that I had in this game, they made no adjustments in the second half when Mississippi State made adjustments. When Mississippi State was able to start stacking the line, taking away the run game, they couldn't do anything to stop it. They were having three and outs. They were unable to convert critical third downs. By the way, just five of 15 on third downs in this game. They did go three of three on fourth down, which was really good for this team, but they struggled to convert, they struggled to get themselves into situations for third and shorts. I think the average was like third and seven in this game. That's really tough. And then of course they couldn't throw the football when they needed to. Yeah, you dominated the running game, you still gonna be able to pass it. So overall, 85 out of 100 here. Brian Ward, last grade, 95 out of 100 for rock solid A. They dominated the first half. You were hoping that was gonna be the way things were going to go for the rest of the game. They controlled the line of scrimmage, the defensive line. It's just so good, man. You can't run on them. You absolutely cannot run on this group. And as long as everyone stays healthy, that's gonna happen all season long. They were able to dial up a pass rush. They got three more sacks this week. They forced another turnover, returned it forward touchdown. Secondary had a pretty quality game as well. Unfortunately, in the second half, Mississippi State, again, made adjustments. The defense was not able to keep up. Now, the question I have is, this felt very similar to the 2023 sun devils, where even though the defense was playing really good, they got tired because ASU's offense was going three and out and putting them back on the field a little quicker than you would like them to. Defense, I feel like kind of suffered some fatigue in this game. I would especially say that when they gave up the 80 yard touchdown. The team was out of position for that play, but you haven't allowed a play like that in these first two games. It just wasn't expected. We saw that play happen in the press box and we kind of turned to each other and we're like, what the hell was that? It was not something that we would ever predict. So that's something that I wonder is more of like, an exception compared to the rule, if that's an anomaly kind of thing. Nonetheless, you don't want to see it. They did a great job on a third down conversions, three of 11 for the Bulldogs, one of two on fourth down. They did a pretty good job when it came to getting off the field. The overall grade for this team, this is the culmination of all the grades together. It came out to when 85 on the dot, 85 out of 100 for a Brock solid B. The defense really stepped up to help carry this unit because the offense outside of the running game didn't do nearly enough that you needed them to. They had very quality play from the offensive line, literally a perfect grade running the ball, really bad grades passing. Defense stepped up big time. The coaching overall was pretty good. Kenny, not the best game he's called, certainly not the worst. Marcus Royal, hopefully we can get a more balanced offense. Brian Ward, terrific. Overall, 85 out of 100. This could have easily been another A if they were able to play a strong second half, but there were two critical drives in the second half that defined this game. Mississippi State was absolutely rolling on offense. You felt like they were gonna just score at will. The defense forced a three and out, which it didn't exactly kill the rhythm, but or the, not the rhythm, the momentum, because the very next drive, they had that ADR touchdown. But if they do not get that three and out, I don't think the ASU wins this game. Then you had the final drive of the game on offense. You'd shoot up right around six minutes of clock time, running the football with cam scataboo. That was not only the game winning drive, it might have been the most important drive that you had in the entire game. When you had Mississippi State charging on offense, when you had that defense, nothing out everything that ASU wanted to do on offense for themselves, this was so critical to the game. Those two drives, the three and out that halted some of the momentum from the Bulldogs and the game ceiling drive from the offense. Those were the two most important drives for the game. They both came in the fourth quarter. You don't have those drives. I really don't think that you win this game. 85 out of 100, bottom line, top to bottom as your average. How would you grade the Sun Devils? Am I being lenient? Am I being too stubborn when it comes to these grades? Let me know in the comments. You can hit me up on Twitter as well at Richie Brad's 36 and the podcast at LL_Sun Devils. Wherever you're getting your shows though, hit like, hit subscribe, turn on notifications so you get that update whenever we post new content. A special shout out to my everydayers who are here every day and thanks to all of you for making us your first lesson of the day. Tomorrow on the show, we have overreactions from this game. I was kind of curious if this was gonna be something that we did moving forward. Yeah, we're, we got some overreactions for sure. I don't know how many we're gonna do. I don't know if we're gonna distribute it, excuse me, a certain way for some offense, some defense, but we got some overreactions that go through tomorrow before we jump into preparing for Texas State. So I'll see you there. Till then, you keep it locked right here on locked on Sun Devils. - A prime member. You can listen to this lockdown podcast and free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. - Five hour energy shots give you the feeling of alertness and energy you need to get in the zone and get things done. With zero sugar, a convenient portable size and coming in several flavors like watermelon tropical burst or my personal favorite grape, it's exactly what you need to get through the day. Head to fivehourenergy.com, the set number fivehourenergy.com and use our code locked on CFB to receive 20% off your order. This offer is only valid until September 30th on one order and cannot be used with other promotions. The code is not good on subscription orders. 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