No. 19 USC vs. Arizona State

Earlier this week, Matt Zemek profiled the historic nature of the 2013 loss by the USC Trojans to the Arizona State Sun Devils. Arizona State’s four first-half turnovers and two missed field goals provided a misleading score.

Arizona State (2-1) will be playing its conference opener with a chance to erase the disappointment of the team’s inconsistent nonconference performances.

Cody Kessler threw for 375 yards and five touchdowns and No. 19 Southern California took advantage of Arizona State’s mistakes to roll past the Sun Devils 42-14 on Saturday night. The USC running game has rushed for an average of 6.4 yards per carry this season. The Sun Devils utiliize their passing attack frequently. Arizona outdug ASU (64-55) and out blocked the Sun Devils (10-8).

Things went going completely awry for the Sun Devils when Richard fumbled near USC’s goaline, setting up Chris Wood’s 94-yard return for the touchdown. The Trojans are also just 2-9 against the number in their last 11 road games versus a team with a winning home record. While a loss at Texas A&M to begin the season wasn’t the end of the world, the Sun Devils didn’t look great in wins over cupcakes Cal Poly and New Mexico.

Revenge probably doesn’t come into play, but it should be noted that ASU beat USC in the Coliseum last season on what the Sun Devils call the “Jael Mary” – a 46-yard last-play pass from Mike Bercovici to Jaelen Strong.

After Arizona State kicker Zane Gonzalez missed his second field goal attempt on the next possession, Kessler drove the Trojans 66 yards in 2:34, hitting Smith-Schuster on a 9-yard touchdown pass for a 21-0 lead with 3:37 left in the half.

Arizona head coach Rich Rodriguez talks to UCLA quarterback Josh Rosen (3) after an NCAA college football game, Saturday, September 26, 2015, in Tucson, Ariz. ASU gained 454 yards of offense, just five shy of USC’s total.

– Demario Richard ran 14 times for 131 yards and two touchdowns.

“This is a really critical game very early in the season for us that we need to put our best foot forward to try to get the ‘W, ‘” Sarkisian said.

But USC may consider running the ball a bit more against Arizona State.

USC’s inability to get pressure on Kevin Hogan allowed the Cardinal quarterback to pick apart the defense with his arm or legs. I’m happy for our team, we got better as the match went on. USC has a lot of depth behind him, but he’d be nice to have at full strength, as the oft-injured senior is off to a good start, having carried 28 times for 206 yards and four scores. Gardner, who collected eight kills in the third, slammed one down at 20-16, Pickrell responded to consecutive errors with a major kill, Halli Amaro saved the first game point for the Cats, and the ball just swiveled over the net for the 25-20 win.

When analyzing just in-conference ranks, USC has the edge in the passing game.

“Our plan was to slow the tempo down and we wanted to play about 65 plays on defense and about 80 plays on offense”, Graham said. You’re never ready. It’s something I’ve got to take on.