ASU coach says CU could “easily” have beaten Oregon
No. 7 UCLA dropped a 38-23 decision to Arizona State in a Pac-12 game at the Rose Bowl before 80,113 on Saturday evening.
Next up is the Sun Devil Stock Report. The same question remains, do they have enough in the tank to seize it? Was the showing in Pasadena a fluke, or was a team turning a corner?
Turnovers. OK, another given – but it’s no coincidence that the Buffs win when they win the turnover battle. They’ll improve as they add more D-I-caliber players to their roster and their current recruits mature at the college level.
Perhaps the biggest contributor to ASU’s struggles over the first month was an offense that was lacking an identity.
Arizona State failed to live up to those expectations, losing to Texas A&M to open the season, pulling out not-so-convincing wins over Cal Poly and New Mexico, then falling flat against the Trojans. “He finishes off runs and he’s a competitor”. Senior Mike Bercovici leads ASU at quarterback.
The Bruins’ other injured players appear to be recovering.
Now that the Devils have their swagger back, there’s no telling how high this team might go. “That’s what Kalen Ballage does, he’s a man-child”.
“All we can do is move on”, defensive end Takkarist McKinley said. “He brings that physicality to running the football”.
The blitzing is making every one’s life hell. Cali obviously makes an enormous difference.
“I mean, we pride ourselves on running the ball”, Duarte said. “Using your legs as a quarterback, the defense has to account for another guy in the box”.
The Sun Devils are now in the midst of a four-game stretch against their Pac-12 South rivals.
Early success in passing game.
The first offensive play UCLA ran this season carried much promise.
The stats show this is not a one-game trend. Colorado is also the only team that ASU has an undefeated record against after playing at least six games, according to thesundevils.com. Penn State gave themselves an extra year to acquire talent including a few D-1 transfers that played a big role initially.
ASU has a history of jumping on the Buffs early. “I was joking around if we wanted to play on Sunday we could play again”. The Buffaloes running game is ranked 17th, compared to the 64th-ranked rush defense of the Sun Devils. They start Division I play off with a game against Alaska-Anchorage on Friday night, followed by a game with Alaska-Fairbanks on Saturday night. Perkins had 63 yards on 18 carries – 29 of those on one attempt – and the Bruins had 62 overall.
“This is what we expect from our defense”, Simone said. “Especially (since) a couple of teams might have passed you up coming out of recruitment”. “We have a really good group of people and not a bunch of finger pointers”.
The Bruins went three for 14 on third down, and went three-and-out on eight of their 17 offensive drives. “Well, actually it was true last week”, Graham said. “My vision was moving and attacking and getting in the backfield and creating negative plays, and he’s done that”. He has also played safety.
Apparently, all it took was to push the team to the brink for that old swagger to return.
“That felt great”, Fairbairn said. They did a tremendous job.
Most importantly, that attitude came to the forefront late in the fourth quarter during crunch time. The Bruins had previously lost run-stuffing defensive tackle Eddie Vanderdoes and cornerback Fabian Moreau for the season.
Well, nearly all of it.
The Bruins and Sun Devils have combined to score 89, 58, 88, 71 and 89 points in meetings from 2010 through 2014 respectively. Play if safe and punt?
“There’s a lot of guys when you come down to this state, you get off the flight at Burbank (airport), you’ve got a little chip on your shoulder”, Bercovici said.
Ballage’s run would soon seal the deal, Lucille.
UCLA’s football team has used two punters, with neither distinguishing himself. With a gauntlet of tough games ahead, this could be the beginning of Colorado’s slide.
Arizona State does many things well, but they happen to excel in the facets of the game where the Buffs are now most vulnerable.