Utah loses 37-7 to Arizona State in Pac-12 opener

Manhandled on both sides of the ball, Utah fell into a big hole early and had no chance of recovering, leading to a 37-7 loss to Arizona State Saturday night in the Pac-12 opener for both teams.

"We got whipped tonight, soundly," Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said. "They are a better football team than we are. We got outcoached, out played, they had control of the game from start to finish. We really didn't do much in the way of positives."

Utah (2-2, 0-1 Pac-12) followed an impressive win over rival Brigham Young with a dud, falling behind 21-0 in the first quarter and managing 209 total yards — 55 in the second half.

John White lost two fumbles after missing the BYU game last week with an ankle injury and Jon Hays was mostly ineffective in his second game in place of Jordan Wynn, setting up a lopsided loss that may be more disheartening for Utah than its slipup against Utah State in Week 2.

"I am kind of dumbfounded right now," Hays said.

Coming off a mistake-filled road loss to Missouri, the Sun Devils (3-1, 1-0 Pac-12) needed to regroup quickly after their first taste of adversity under new coach Todd Graham. They did, using their don't-let-em-rest offense and a smothering defense to run past Utah on a hot night in the desert.

Getting better seemingly by the week, Taylor Kelly set a career high with 326 yards and had three touchdown passes in the first half as Arizona State built a 31-7 lead.

Cameron Marshall scored two touchdowns after a having limited role against Missouri and Arizona State rolled up 512 total yards against one of the nation's best defenses to win its ninth straight over the Utes.

Statement made.

"Our guys did this," Graham said. "They (Utah) have a really good football team, but we really dominated them. They came after it all the way around."

After two easy wins to open the season, the Sun Devils had four turnovers, seven penalties — two more than the first two games combined — and a disastrous day on special teams to lose 24-20 to the Tigers.