Lackluster performance halts ASU’s home win streak

On Wednesday this week, at 3:04 a.m. AZT, USA Today released a 2026 NFL Mock Draft article placing Arizona State’s junior wide receiver Jorydn Tyson as the No.4 player in the 2026 NFL draft as the first wide receiver off the board. 

By 11:30 a.m. AZT Wednesday, head coach Kenny Dillingham announced Tyson would be ruled out for the Sun Devils’ matchup against Houston, Saturday night, after sustaining a lower-body injury the week prior.

USA Today wasn’t even the only outlet to proclaim Tyson’s status that day, as The Athletic wrote a piece on Wednesday reaffirming Tyson as the top wide receiver in the country, while ESPN and CBS Sports have proclaimed him as a probable top-10 pick in October mock drafts as well

Saturday night, the Sun Devils (5-3, 3-2 Big 12) felt the effects of playing without their marquee wide receiver, going scoreless through three quarters before losing 24-16 to Houston (7-1, 4-1)—the first time they’ve shut out through three quarters since Sep 16, 2023.

“You’re losing the number one pick in his position in college football, so that obviously is pretty critical for your football team,” Dillingham said post-game. “Is that an excuse? No, we didn’t play well enough to win. If he had played, maybe we would have  survived, not playing good enough to win, but that doesn’t mean we played good enough to win.” 

On the stat sheet, ASU fans will take solace in how the team performed, posting 426 yards of total offense; however, the issues arose once passing midfield. With just 15 red zone touchdowns on the season, Dillingham’s offense is 12th in the Big 12. 

In the first half, the Sun Devils had put up at least 44 yards on three separate drives; however, due to a fumble from sophomore quarterback Sam Leavitt, a high snap, and a false start, they failed to put any points on the board when they had the opportunity. 

“We couldn’t stay in a good enough rhythm,” Dillingham noted. “We weren’t efficient when we actually were moving the ball; we didn’t get points, which is the goal of the game.” 

Senior wide receiver Malik McClain had his best game for the Maroon and Gold, taking a larger role with Tyson’s injury. He caught seven passes for 159 yards. Heading into Saturday, he had just six receptions for 51 yards despite playing every game in 2025, but McClain recognized where the team had its worst issues. 

“We gotta score in the red zone,” McClain said.“That’s our Achilles heel right now.” 

Red zone scoring wasn’t the reason ASU had its issues, however, because they failed to get into the final fifth of the field to begin with, scoring on one of just two red zone entries all game. Special teams once again had a day to forget, senior kicker Jesus Gomez missed two field goals from 31 and 42 yards. 

Gomez was stellar against No.14 Texas Tech in Week 8, converting all four of his field goals; however, the play of the punt and kickoff units struggled, and Dillingham said their performance was “Unacceptable” after that game. Despite not being pleased on Saturday, he didn’t single out any unit. 

“We didn’t play well enough as a football team tonight,” Dillingham said when asked about special teams. “That was one of the phases that didn’t play well enough. But all the phases have to play better.” 

When an offense struggles, the quarterback is the first player looked upon with question marks. Leavitt had a rollercoaster of a game, but didn’t see much success; without his number one option, he completed just 18-of-35 passes for 270 yards and one touchdown. 

He turned the ball over for the first time since Week 2 after trying to pump fake a pass; it slipped out of his hands and bounced to the Houston 35-yard line before a Cougar pounced on the live ball. 

Leavitt also dealt with multiple injury scares of his own, leaving the contest twice with two separate but undisclosed knocks. 

“It was two different things throughout the game,” Dillingham elaborated on Leavitt’s injury. “I don’t want to comment on the second. The first one was just kind of a scare, hopefully based on what we saw. The second one, we got to get more of a look into it before I really comment on it.”

Leavitt went out halfway through the first drive of the game and returned for the second, but he left again early in the fourth quarter with 7:15 left to play; both times, six-year senior Jeff Sims substituted in. 

Sims led the offense on a seven-play 70-yard drive that ended in a touchdown pass to senior Chamon Metayer, both of their first on the season. Sims shrank the scoreboard to a one-score contest; however, ASU couldn’t move the chains in the final two minutes after being pinned deep in their own territory. 

“Jeff did a really nice job moving the ball down the field,” Dillingham said. “Moved all the way down the field, scored a touchdown two-minute drill, and then been there at the end, you know, bang, bang, playing. Great play by them to knock the ball out.” 

Houston’s defense did a spectacular job throughout the game; the Sun Devils’ offense leads the Big 12 in time of possession, averaging over 33 minutes per game; however, they couldn’t stay on the field, totaling just 22:58 minutes with the pigskin on Saturday. 

A major factor in this was third down, ASU converted on just 5-of-15 attempts, and without Tyson, it seemed as though the offense had no answer. 

“We were getting behind the chains and then they did a nice job on third down,” Dillingham admitted. 

Offensively, Houston quarterback junior Connor Weigman diced up ASU on the ground and over the air. Using designed quarterback runs, he ran 21 times for 111 yards and two touchdowns. 

“You got to give it to that kid,” Dillingham praised. “That dude was a warrior for them tonight, to take the snap and run. Quarterback, direct, run 20 times, 18 times. You’ve got to give him a lot of credit because he did a nice job.”

The ground opened up his passing ability; he completed 17-of-22 passes for another 201 yards and a touchdown. He made timely throws with consistency, using the run to open up his passing game. That dynamic caused the Sun Devil defense to be out of sorts, having to move around secondary players to accommodate their difficulties stopping the run. 

“You’ve got to have your free safety, or one of your extra fitters to come down, to fit the hole,” senior linebacker Keyshaun Elliott explained. “They’re good at doing their job, and they were stout off stout offensive line, too well getting up to the second level. So they’re collecting people and stuff to stop.” 

ASU didn’t help itself out, racking up a dozen penalties in the contest, including untimely ones such as Metayer’s 21-yard touchdown that was called off for an illegal shift, or senior safety Myles Rowser’s targeting penalty on the one-yard line that led to a touchdown the very next play. 

Despite losing its second conference game in just three weeks, the season is far from over for the Sun Devils. In 2024, they started Big 12 play 2-2 before winning five straight to end the season and eventually reach the Big 12 championship. 

“We’re in the same spot we were last year,” Dillingham added. “We just got to go get better. Everybody’s got to let themselves in the mirror, coaches, players, everybody, and we’ve got to improve.” 

One difference between 2024 and 2025, however, is that ASU defends home turf as well as anyone in the nation, going undefeated at Mountain America Stadium for the first time since 2004. 

Saturday’s defeat marks the first time the Sun Devils have lost in Tempe since Nov 25, 2023, against Arizona. They finished 3-9 in Dillingham’s first season as coach, and although times have changed drastically for the program in the 10 wins in between, he noted that all things must come to an end. 

“It was a good run,” Dillingham said. “10 games in a row here. Great environments. We’ve really built a great environment here. And unfortunately, we couldn’t get it done tonight. We didn’t play well enough in the first half, first three quarters, really, of the football game, and it’s unfortunate, but great crowd, great environment. It’s a good run. Hopefully, we can start another run here.

“It’s great to set an expectation to win every home game. That’s how it should be. You should have the expectation with every home game. You’re not going to, but that should be the expectation.”