ASU @ Oregon State

[devilalum]

Kelly hasn't made a descent throw since he broke his foot.
He hasn't completed that back shoulder throw that was money at the start of the year in about 6 weeks.
At this point he has no confidence whatsoever.

Devils had no business being in the title talk. "IF" they make it to the Pac 12 title game they're gonna get hammered by Oregon.

Still better season to this point than I thought possible at the start of the year.

They need to tweek the offense and put Berc back in for the remainder.

 

[devilalum]

The thing that was most disappointing was the way the Devils got their *** kicked. There was an "injured" Devil lying on the field almost every play of the second half. OSU really punched them in the mouth.

 

[Jay Cardinal]

Brutal loss. I was really hoping for this game and figured it wouldn't be easy, but the Sun Devils could pull it off.

Obviously the big plays hurt the defense, but outside of a few big runs and the big pass, they played good enough to win.

The offense and coaching is where the problems really stood out to me. Norvell has a distinct lack of a killer instinct. After scoring 24 points in the first half, it seemed obvious that was enough for the offense. They really checked out and hardly challenged the OSU defense. When they did, there were a serious of dropped passes and horrible throws. Taylor Kelly was not very good. I thought OSU corners played exceptional, but they were not consistently challenged with timely, good throws.

I was really disappointed in watching ASU run the power sweep to the strong side and allow the unblocked weakside DE to crash down and kill the play. It happened several times and the coaches need to pick up on that. If Kelly fakes the handoff and bootlegs it to the opposite side, we are getting a huge gain, and the DE will be less likely to sell out to the running back. I am shocked that in an offense like ours, predicated on the read-option, that the coaching staff didn't pick up on it.

The coaching was really sorry this game. Mike Riley came in with a specific plan on offense and defense. They were going to blitz ASU on D, and prepared greatly for the blitz on offense. This was obvious five minutes into the game. I am not sure Norvell and Graham picked up on it the entire game. Kweishi Brown, really struggled in isolation man coverage and I think the defense would have done better keeping a safety deep and blitzing one less player. Losing Jordan Simone early hurt, he is key on this defense.

On the positive, I think Marcus Hardison looks like a late round draft pick to me. He has improved every game this year, has great size, plays the run well, and is starting to beat pass blocking with consistency. Good to see Kody Kohl catch and run a TD, I wonder if this will get the coaches to call more plays to the tight ends? Really could use some more threats in this DJ/Strong only offense. I also thought DJ Calhoun played tough on defense, and is improving a lot as of late.

 

[FArting]

Tough Loss

 

[overseascardfan]

To be very honest ASU had the same problem last week, coming out flat in the second half against ND and nearly lost the game had it not been for the defense coming up big at the end. Taylor Kelly continues to be the main reason the offense is stalling, he is constantly missing receivers, coming up short on deep routes and missing on short routes. Didn't help that his receivers had a couple of drops but a majority of the time its Kelly. That interception he threw for the pick six was him not paying attention to the LB staying home and reading him eye the receiver. Then the last play of the game it looked like he just gave up at the end and took the sack. I just hate the deer in the headlights look he has when he misses a throw or makes a mistake.

Hindsight is 20/20 and I'm sure Graham felt that he couldn't keep Kelly on the bench the rest of his SR season but ASU should have stuck with Berco as the team rallied around him and the offense was really clicking. I think Berco should start the last 2 games, there I said it, Taylor Kelly's feelings be damned.

 

[Brian]

To be very honest ASU had the same problem last week, coming out flat in the second half against ND and nearly lost the game had it not been for the defense coming up big at the end. Taylor Kelly continues to be the main reason the offense is stalling, he is constantly missing receivers, coming up short on deep routes and missing on short routes. Didn't help that his receivers had a couple of drops but a majority of the time its Kelly. That interception he threw for the pick six was him not paying attention to the LB staying home and reading him eye the receiver. Then the last play of the game it looked like he just gave up at the end and took the sack. I just hate the deer in the headlights look he has when he misses a throw or makes a mistake.

Hindsight is 20/20 and I'm sure Graham felt that he couldn't keep Kelly on the bench the rest of his SR season but ASU should have stuck with Berco as the team rallied around him and the offense was really clicking. I think Berco should start the last 2 games, there I said it, Taylor Kelly's feelings be damned.

Totally agree. I've honestly thought that ever since Kelly came back. The press conference where Graham said "This is Taylor Kelly's team" pissed me off. I thought to myself "why"? Berco just threw for 1,000 yards in TWO games. Sometimes coaches get in their own way.