With more than a week to process and recover from its first loss of the season, Washington gets a prime opportunity to bounce back while visiting Arizona State on Saturday.

The Sun Devils (1-4, 0-2 Pac-12) are having a difficult 2022 season, now coming off four consecutive losses and the firing of Herm Edwards after a tumultuous offseason. In fact, they've let to beat an FBS opponent this season.

Two weeks ago, they played their first game with interim head coach Shaun Aguano at the helm and were beaten handily by No. 13 Utah at home. The Sun Devils gave a much more inspired performance against No. 6 USC last weekend, perhaps their best of the year to date, but it still wasn’t enough as the Trojans wound up winning comfortably as well.

There’s scattered talent across this roster, but a lack of cohesion and discipline has hurt Arizona State badly. Last week’s performance should be a good stepping stone in the right direction for ASU despite the loss, and the Sun Devils will look to build off that as they host the No. 21 Huskies (4-1, 1-1) at 1 p.m. PT Saturday in Tempe, Ariz. (on Pac-12 Network).

Let's take a closer look at the matchup with the Sun Devils ...

Coach: Shaun Aguano (0-2 as interim HC)

2021 record: 8-5

2022 record: 1-4

Stats/national rankings

Scoring Offense: 23.2 PPG (104th)

Scoring Defense: 28.6 PPG (86th)

Total Offense: 344.6 YPG (104th)

Total Defense: 398.6 YPG (88th)

What Arizona State does well: The Sun Devils’ offense has hardly been potent this season, but the run game has been productive with tailback Xazavian Valladay leading the charge. He’s been running the ball with great efficiency at 6.2 yards per carry, totaling 455 yards and 5 touchdowns so far. The ASU rushing offense largely leans on him as the bell cow, with primary backup Daniel Ngata also running the ball effectively at 5.9 yards per carry. The Sun Devils run game was very successful in the first half against USC last week before completely drying up in the second half as a result of both the Trojans’ adjustments and ASU’s rapid abandonment of the ground attack. At the end of the game, they’d handed the ball off just 18 times. This team doesn’t run the ball as much as it perhaps should, but when it does so the running backs have been able to make things happen.

ASU isn’t particularly impressive on the other side of the ball either, but there’s real talent in the secondary and it’s easily been the defensive bright spot of the year so far. Cornerbacks Ro Torrence and Timarcus Davis have been largely dependable for the team on the outside, and nickel/hybrid safety Khoury Bethley has made impact plays with consistency. At the safety position, Jordan Clark, son of former Steeler and current ESPN analyst Ryan Clark, has offered good tackling and security in down-the-field coverage. The quality play in the ASU defensive backfield has helped the team prevent big passing days from most of its opponents so far, allowing an average of just 194.5 yards through the air on a completion percentage of only 62.2% before the USC game. Against the two top-15 programs they've played prior (Oklahoma State and Utah, the Sun Devils had given up 528 yards passing on 59.7% completion, allowing 4 touchdowns and securing 2 interceptions. Things went a bit differently against the Trojans as Caleb Williams threw for 348 yards and 3 touchdowns on a high completion percentage, but the ASU secondary had some nice flashes throughout the game, including an interception of Williams by Davis that was the first turnover forced against USC all season.