Arizona State holds on late, upsets No. 7 UCLA 38-23

The UCLA Bruins (4-0) look to remain unbeaten when the Arizona State Sun Devils (2-2) visit the Rose Bowl Saturday night. Things line up well for the Utes, who have Cal and Washington as its Pac-12 North crossover games.

Attrition has set in, and the Bruins are scrambling to plug holes.

UCLA tailback Paul Perkins is a Phoenix-area native whose father and younger brother have both suited up for Arizona State.

Entering the game, UCLA was averaging 236 rushing yards per contest, and Perkins ranked second in the Pac-12 in rushing with 514 yards.

Basically, in games not against Stanford, the USC defense has looked outstanding.

Big pieces have been removed from the table.

Linebacker Jayon Brown – No. 122 at his position and again the second-lowest rated recruit in the 2013 class – was called upon in part to replace Jack and performed well.

Mora said that it has slightly altered how the Bruins do business on defense.

“When we get those one-on-one situations all the way across the board, somebody’s got to win”, the Sun Devils defensive coordinator said earlier this week.

Or maybe Northwestern, who is now undefeated, is a pretty good defensive football team.

Ohio State 34, Indiana 27 – Ezekiel Elliott rushed for a career-high 274 yards, including TD runs of 55, 65, and 75 yards in the second half, as the top-ranked Buckeyes (5-0, 1-0 Big Ten) staved off the host Hoosiers’ upset bid.

“I think we held their offense to something like 7 or 8 yards rushing in the first half”, Arizona State running back Kalen Ballage said.

Arizona also has a tough bounce-back game after a blowout loss to UCLA when it visits Stanford. Can’t make sense of any of them. But there were moments that highlighted what was happening on the field.

Once Mazzone started to switch up the play-calling on first down, UCLA’s offense saw a little more success.

Only problem was: Iese didn’t catch the ball. The Bruins put together a methodical drive, pushing the ball to the Arizona State 49-yard line. Running back Demario Richard has been solid so far, but the Sun Devils have struggled to find other weapons to help quarterback Mike Bercovici in the passing game.

The Bruins used to be a relatively consistent team, a team which would win the Pac-10 every few years and play a prestigious January bowl with the same relative level of frequency.

Thomas Duarte gets an “A”. Ballage backed in to the end zone as redshirt junior tight end Kody Kohl and redshirt senior quarterback Mike Bercovici dragged him along. Later in the drive, Bercovici threw an 11-yard touchdown pass to D.J. Foster.

After Kansas State (3-1, 0-1) built a 28-13 lead late in the second quarter, the Cowboys rallied to take a 33-28 lead on Mason Rudolph’s 3-yard touchdown pass to Brandon Sheperd with 6:06 to go. Oh, we beat the team you lost to. “We battled, but we have to be consistent”. “We won, but I’m not very happy at all”. I guess that’s what happens when fans are spoiled from the Pete Carroll era.

Rios had a scare this week, after suffering migraine headaches and sinus troubles.

They dressed quickly, downed a Five Hour Energy and went to work.

Rios played briefly Friday.