TEMPE, Ariz. - On a third-and-1 deep in his own territory, Arizona State junior quarterback Cutter Boley faced serious pressure from Baylor’s pass rush.

Responding to the rush, Boley scurried out of the pocket, something he did countless times on Saturday night.

The events that followed appeared conventional at first, as Boley’s only chance to salvage the play was throwing the ball away.

With the Sun Devils trailing the Bears by 18, killing any chance of a sack meant ASU could convert a fourth-and-1 to keep its first drive of the second half afloat.

However, Boley’s attempt to throw the ball away didn’t come anywhere close to the sideline.

Instead, the ball fell right into the lap of Baylor senior linebacker and Phoenix native Ryan Davis, setting up a short field for the Bears' offense.

Junior quarterback DJ Lagway instantly took advantage, throwing his fourth touchdown strike of the game less than a minute later and sending a tidal wave of Sun Devils fans to the exits.

The sequence put a ribbon on a dream victory for Baylor (4-1, 2-0 Big 12), as the Bears steamrolled ASU (2-2, 1-1 Big 12) 55-19 on Saturday, Oct. 3, at Mountain America Stadium. Head coach Kenny Dillingham said the Sun Devils failed to build momentum throughout the game due to a strong Baylor defense and a lack of fundamentals. 

After such a poor showing in the Sun Devils’ Big 12 home opener, Dillingham wondered how to get the best football out of his team in 2026.

“I’m not doing a very good job this year,” Dillingham said. “I got to figure out the right recipe for this team. I haven’t figured it out yet.”

The blowout marked the Sun Devils’ most lopsided loss since Utah’s 55-3 win over ASU in 2023.

However, while that loss in Salt Lake City came against a nationally ranked foe on the road in a season when the Sun Devils finished 3-9, Saturday saw ASU get run out of its own building by an unranked opponent.

With endless questions arising from the rout, Dillingham struggled to pinpoint why the game went so far off the rails for the Sun Devils.

“I thought we were fine going into the game,” Dillingham said. “I liked our energy, I liked our focus, I liked our week of practice, and that’s the disappointing thing.”

On the opposite sideline, Baylor brought a wealth of energy to the field with a lights-out offensive performance.

The Bears totaled 564 offensive yards on Saturday night, including 11 plays of 15-plus yards and seven plays of 25-plus yards.

Most notably, Baylor ripped off two rushing touchdowns of 60-plus yards, coming from freshman running back Ryelan Morris and sophomore running back Caden Knighten.

All in all, the Bears’ track meet ended with 244 total yards rushing to go along with Lagway’s 306 yards and four touchdowns through the air.

Dillingham gave the Baylor offense its flowers for making big plays happen.

“You got to give them credit,” Dillingham said. “(Lagway) threw some really nice footballs … and then they made some plays in one-on-one situations.”

Lagway and the Bears' offense also performed when they needed it most, going 9-for-15 on third down, with three of Baylor’s nine third-down conversions resulting in touchdowns.

All night, ASU’s defense struggled to get off the field on high-leverage downs, killing any chance of a comeback.

“It’s a big momentum shift,” Dillingham said. “Third downs and third-and-longs are defensive advantage calls … we got them in a lot of them, and they converted a lot of them. Not ideal.”

The Bears’ offensive bonanza was aided by poor tackling by ASU’s defense, a surprise from a Sun Devils unit that hadn’t struggled with tackling in its first three games.

Over the course of the game, most of Baylor’s breakout plays involved at least one missed tackle from an ASU defender.

Junior linebacker Owen Long called on the defense to improve its tackling, among other aspects, before next week’s game vs. Hawaii.

“We got in our own way a lot,” Long said. “So, we got to find a way to just get back to the drawing board and try to fix this up.”

On offense, Boley and the Sun Devils showed some life, but still didn’t meet the moment on Saturday.

That especially rang true on the ground, as ASU tallied only 99 yards on 30 rushes in the loss, for an average of 3.3 yards per carry.

It marks the first time the Sun Devils have fallen short of 100 yards rushing since their 24-16 loss to Houston last season.

While Boley fared better in the aerial attack with 304 yards passing, he still believes the entire offense needs to find its footing.

“There’s a lot of areas that we have to get better in,” Boley said. “We got to find our identity … keep growing and keep trying to be the team we want to be.”

In a game with few positive takeaways, senior wide receivers Reed Harris and Omarion Miller were bright spots in ASU’s defeat. 

Harris went up and over 100 yards receiving for the third time in 2026, finishing with seven grabs for 125 yards.

Meanwhile, Miller pulled his weight, hauling in five receptions for 85 yards and the Sun Devils’ lone touchdown of the evening.

Miller’s increased production is a welcome sight for ASU fans after two rough outings against Texas A&M and Kansas.

Dillingham devised a game script with Miller's involvement in mind.

“I thought (Miller) was targeted more down the field,” Dillingham said. “There’s a lot of play action planned … for him to get more targets.”

Even with both Harris and Miller filling the stat sheet, the Sun Devils never made the game feel manageable from the first quarter onward.

In turn, the sold-out crowd, complete with a jam-packed student section, never found a real chance to get into the game and eventually turned what started as 54,063 people into a ghost town.

By the fourth quarter, the armada of Bears fans who made the trip from Texas took over Tempe, as “BU” chants served as the soundtrack for the final moments of the game.

With the heart of Big 12 play still ahead of ASU, local support will be vital to the Sun Devils’ performance at Mountain America Stadium.

With that, Dillingham fully understands the disappointment that the ASU faithful may be feeling.

“To the fanbase, I’d just say I’m with you,” Dillingham said. “Whatever your frustration is, just multiply it by 10, and you have my frustration.”

Those same fans look to continue a 10-game sellout streak next week when the Sun Devils host Hawaii for their final non-conference tilt of the season.

Even though next week’s opponent might not play in a power conference, Saturday’s showing raises questions about where ASU truly stands as a team in 2026, leaving an upset loss to the Rainbow Warriors completely in the picture.

So, with another home game ahead, Dillingham knows that the current state of Sun Devil football is not enough.

“We’re not hitting a standard that I want,” Dillingham said. “We’re not playing as good as we can play, and the standard is playing to the maximum ability the football team that you have can play.”