Arizona State Preview Capsule

“I felt like we never slowed her down, she was really good”, Coach Watson said of Mau. We saw what happened last week when the defense couldn’t get to Hogan – they made him look like a god out there, while being unable to force any turnovers.

“That doesn’t mean we’re not going to make adjustments, that doesn’t mean we’re not going to play to the strengths of our team”.

It’s back to the Pac-12 this week and doing what ASU normally does on defense. While USC is talented, it just seems like the Trojans continue to get a ton of love from oddmakers that may not exactly be warranted, as we saw last week.

The USC Trojans and Arizona State Sun Devils square off Saturday night at Sun Devil Stadium.

Arizona State (2-1) hasn’t been playing inspiring football, dropping an opener against Texas A&M in Houston, needing a late push to beat lower-division Cal Poly, and coming up with a ho-hum 34-10 win over the Lobos. A loss? Well, we could be looking at a long year that could end in the Las Vegas or Foster Farms Bowl if the Devils were to get lucky. You have to know and trust our format and style. Going on the road for the first time, it’s paramount that USC musters up at least one turnover to gain some momentum and try to take the crowd out of the game. USC moved the ball just fine as Cody Kessler threw for 272 yards and three touchdowns while JuJu Smith-Schuster had eight receptions for 153 yards and a touchdown. Last week against New Mexico, he accounted for 255 total yards as he became the first FBS player with 100 rushing yards and 150 receiving yards in the same game since North Texas’ Lance Dunbar in 2011. Included in his big day was a 93-yard touchdown reception. “He runs with an attitude and he runs through the tackles”, said coach Todd Graham. The USC Trojans ground game is averaging 208 yards per game, and Tre Madden leads the way with 206 yards and four touchdowns. Simone has 5.5 tackles for loss through three games, as well as two interceptions.

The Sun Devils have a three-game winning streak over the Trojans, though last year’s game has to come with a bit of an asterisk, as the Devils were bailed out when a USC defender decided to attempt a fair catch on a Hail Mary pass. As such, the Trojans undoubtedly have this game circled on their schedule, and after an embarrassing home loss to Stanford, they’ll be coming to Tempe a bit teed off. “It’s exciting. I think we’ve done well against the Trojans in the past, but that doesn’t matter because this is a completely different year”.

Arizona State’s offensive woes can be largely attributed to its offensive line’s struggles to protect quarterback Mike Bercovici in the pocket.