ASU @ UCLA

[82CardsGrad]

man, the Pac-10 SUCKS this year.

Yep... Utah could be the best, most dominate team with no other team even close...
Should be interesting to see if Stanford can take care of business down in Tucson tonight.

 

[82CardsGrad]

White with another drop... Geeeez.

 

[TJ]

Don't buy stock in any Pac-12 team. They're gonna cannibalize each other especially after they read their own press clippings like ASU and USC did and like UCLA is doing tonight.

Meanwhile, Utah is just chilling under the radar like, "we got this."

 

[82CardsGrad]

Helluva catch by Lucien...

 

[82CardsGrad]

Devils now doing all they can to give this game back to UCLA... What an incredibly poorly played game by both teams.

 

[82CardsGrad]

Simone again gets torched.

 

[Cheesebeef]

lol... all this awful season was missing so far has been an epic collapse. Looks like we got one on the way tonight!

 

[82CardsGrad]

Huge 4th down pick up! Wow.

 

[82CardsGrad]

What a punt! Wow!

 

[82CardsGrad]

Big time stand by the Devils defense there... And then Mora gives up the safety.... Not a bad idea actually.

 

[82CardsGrad]

Whoa! What a run by Ballage! Man he can be pretty special next year!

 

[82CardsGrad]

Graham is now 7&1 in games following a loss of more than 25 points... Guess that's a true double-edges sword as it also means he's lost 7 games in blowout fashion!

 

[Mainstreet]

As talented (though poorly coached) as USC is, UCLA is even more talented, is better coached and is playing home.
ASU is in shambles. Graham has lost his mojo and Norvell is a mess. Berc was overhyped and is not at all ready for prime time.
The only hope for the Devils is that Ballage is somehow able to step up and have a monster game on the ground, thereby keeping the ball away from UCLA and grinding out the clock. If UCLA is able to control time of possession, put up bigtime 3rd down conversions a la USC, this game could very well be an even bigger laugh-fest than the game last week!

I see little to ZERO chance for the Devils...

UCLA - 42
ASU - 14

And like the USC, the game will not at all be as close as that score would suggest!

So the Sun Devils beat a better team than USC on the road according to you.

Great win by the Sun Devils against 7th ranked UCLA.

 

[82CardsGrad]

That's exactly what they did. I had no idea UCLA was missing so many starters. And they played their worst game of the year, by far. But, the Devils finally found their mojo - including the coaching. Norvell made some great calls in the 4th quarter.

 

[Iceman]

ASU did a great job to close that one out. They could fell the momentum shift to UCLA, but kept on going with their game. Berc was outstanding along with the Defense. Play calling was the best it has been all year. O line was getting manhandled in the 4th qtr, but stepped it up when they needed it. Great overall win and it was needed. Hopefully this roles into the rest of the season. I predicted them to lose and so glad I was wrong!

 

[Mainstreet]

The season is too early to tell how good the Sun Devils are. Expectations were huge. However, it is interesting to note that the Sun Devils two losses came against opponents who are currently 8-1.

 

[Zobaczcie suki]

As talented (though poorly coached) as USC is, UCLA is even more talented, is better coached and is playing home.
ASU is in shambles. Graham has lost his mojo and Norvell is a mess. Berc was overhyped and is not at all ready for prime time.
The only hope for the Devils is that Ballage is somehow able to step up and have a monster game on the ground, thereby keeping the ball away from UCLA and grinding out the clock. If UCLA is able to control time of possession, put up bigtime 3rd down conversions a la USC, this game could very well be an even bigger laugh-fest than the game last week!

I see little to ZERO chance for the Devils...

UCLA - 42
ASU - 14

And like the USC, the game will not at all be as close as that score would suggest!

I think you have a load of crow to eat. Your comments before the game were way over the top, and your comments during the game weren't much better.

Big win by ASU, they played with a ton of heart and took down #7

 

[Zeno]

Much better effort and good drives when needed. Nice win!

 

[Brian in Mesa]

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[82CardsGrad]

I think you have a load of crow to eat. Your comments before the game were way over the top, and your comments during the game weren't much better.



Big win by ASU, they played with a ton of heart and took down #7

Not a load, but I'm happily munching on some crow!
I did reference the impact of Ballage, as well as UCLA needing to convert on 3rd downs - both of which were enormous impacts on this game.
UCLA is incredibly banged up... However, at home against a reeling ASU team, the Bruins should've still won this game easily, freshman QB or not.
Norvell was on the sidelines last night which seemed to make a world of difference. That too was a huge difference as the play calling was 100x better.
And as I mentioned earlier, Graham is now 7&1 in games immediately following a blowout loss. He seems to have a knack for rallying his troops when the chips are down. 'Course, it would be nice to avoid that many blowouts to begin with, but you can't doubt Graham's ability to impact his team on an emotional level.
Nice win for the Devils and in the south, it keeps them in the hunt!

 

[Zobaczcie suki]

Not a load, but I'm happily munching on some crow!
I did reference the impact of Ballage, as well as UCLA needing to convert on 3rd downs - both of which were enormous impacts on this game.
UCLA is incredibly banged up... However, at home against a reeling ASU team, the Bruins should've still won this game easily, freshman QB or not.
Norvell was on the sidelines last night which seemed to make a world of difference. That too was a huge difference as the play calling was 100x better.
And as I mentioned earlier, Graham is now 7&1 in games immediately following a blowout loss. He seems to have a knack for rallying his troops when the chips are down. 'Course, it would be nice to avoid that many blowouts to begin with, but you can't doubt Graham's ability to impact his team on an emotional level.
Nice win for the Devils and in the south, it keeps them in the hunt!

With your backhanded grudging "compliments", doesn't sound like you are eating crow at all.

And here's some more crow for you, things you said on the USC thread:

Really was hoping I'd be proven wrong. But honestly, this team and the coaching is actually worse than I feared.

Graham's "system" on both offense and defense is atrocious. Graham doesn't even pay attention on offense. I have no clue what Norvell wants to do on offense... Berc isn't good. We don't have any noteworthy WR's, Foster might as well not even suit up and the line is a mess.

On defense, I'm tired of watching Graham and his frantic antics on the sidelines, jumping up and down calling last second plays while the defense is shifting all over the place and never seems set and in place! It's laughable and so juvenile!!

UCLA and Utah are going to rip this team the shreds... Graham is going to have a TON to answer to when this debacle of a season is over. I would seriously call out Norvell too... I really believe he is a huge part of the problem...

Being "tight" had nothing to do with this debacle... Bottom line is this team that Graham touted as his "best yet", is one of the least talented teams I've seen from the Devils in a very long time. They literally suck.
Worse, both Graham and Norvell are being exposed each game. Their respective units are being outplayed, out-schemed and out-coached. If this team wins 6 games this season, I would be surprised...

http://www.arizonasportsfans.com/vb/f53/usc-arizona-state-226355-5.html

Pretty disgusting how you were so way over the top in your ASU bashing, and now you don't own up to how wrong you were.

Your explanation seems to be, UCLA had "some players injured and played their worst game of they year." We had players injured too. And do you know why they played their worst game? Because our D kicked their fricken ass. We shut down Perkins, and knocked him out of the Heisman talk. We dominated their excellent offensive line, holding the running game to a total of 63 yards (last week we held USC to 73 yards rushing). UCLA knew our pressure was coming, and yet they were out coached and out executed. Rosen had some nice plays, but he was on the run most of the night.

The score was stuck at 29-10 for much of the 3rd quarter. ASU was dominating at times and in key chunks of the game. And our offense did enough to hold onto the lead. After UCLA made their run, we made several clutch plays to keep the ball. Our special teams made key plays and won their match ups for the first time this year.

So sure, ASU's season got off to a very shaky start and they underperformed. But they are far from the horrible team that you have made them out to be. They were within 7 of Texas A&M with 4 minutes to go. And they gave up a 21 point swing on stupid mistakes to USC right before the half. If they can have good ball security and cut down on the mistakes, they should have a very nice season for themselves.

 

[82CardsGrad]

With your backhanded grudging "compliments", doesn't sound like you are eating crow at all.



And here's some more crow for you, things you said on the USC thread:







http://www.arizonasportsfans.com/vb/f53/usc-arizona-state-226355-5.html



Pretty disgusting how you were so way over the top in your ASU bashing, and now you don't own up to how wrong you were.



Your explanation seems to be, UCLA had "some players injured and played their worst game of they year." We had players injured too. And do you know why they played their worst game? Because our D kicked their fricken ass. We shut down Perkins, and knocked him out of the Heisman talk. We dominated their excellent offensive line, holding the running game to a total of 63 yards (last week we held USC to 73 yards rushing). UCLA knew our pressure was coming, and yet they were out coached and out executed. Rosen had some nice plays, but he was on the run most of the night.



The score was stuck at 29-10 for much of the 3rd quarter. ASU was dominating at times and in key chunks of the game. And our offense did enough to hold onto the lead. After UCLA made their run, we made several clutch plays to keep the ball. Our special teams made key plays and won their match ups for the first time this year.



So sure, ASU's season got off to a very shaky start and they underperformed. But they are far from the horrible team that you have made them out to be. They were within 7 of Texas A&M with 4 minutes to go. And they gave up a 21 point swing on stupid mistakes to USC right before the half. If they can have good ball security and cut down on the mistakes, they should have a very nice season for themselves.

I still stand by the majority of what I said in that post!
This team is not anywhere close from a talent perspective, to teams like UCLA and USC. I haven't seen Utah play yet but based on clips and what I've read, I'm sure I'll go into that game predicting a win for the Utes.
I don't like the way Graham coaches during the game. Don't like how our defense seems never set at the line just prior to the snap. But I love your support of the Devils! I just happen to believe that this team is simply not nearly as good as Graham and Herbstreet wanted us to believe.
The south should be fun to watch play out as there are now 4 teams with a reasonable shot at winning it - Utah, USC, UCLA and ASU. Should be quite a dog fight.

 

[Brian in Mesa]

UCLA is incredibly banged up... However, at home against a reeling ASU team, the Bruins should've still won this game easily, freshman QB or not.

Injuries are part of the game. This is the same team that went on the road to Arizona and beat them 56-30, so enough with the "UCLA is really banged up." crap.

You said ASU had ZERO chance vs UCLA.

Eat some crow already.

 

[Zobaczcie suki]

I think ASU finally settled down and bought into the coaching. They took care of the ball. Special teams looked great. It sure was nice to have Ballage back, sure would have been nice to have him play against A&M, and at full speed v. USC. The O line wasn't great, but they sure opened some nice holes for the running game and gave Berco time.

Still, lots to work on though. Too many dropped passes. Need some better tackling in space. And Berco and the receivers need to get that back shoulder throw down. He's throwing it too hard and the receivers are not quite there yet. A little closer to the body of the receivers and we would have had another TD and some more big plays.

And I think the biggest adjustment for this game was having Norvell down on the field for the first time this season. Yes, those read option dives are pretty damn boring to watch and seem pretty predictable. But they paid off in a big way when Berco took off running. And Norvell clearly has great repore with the players. So having him down there with them was huge in my view. Not sure who is in the booth, but they need to stick with that.

So much of football is mental. And after the A&M loss, I think ASU's confidence took a big hit and they made a ton of mental mistakes. Hopefully, their heads are in the right place going forward.

And as much grief as the coaching staff took the last few weeks, they really deserve some credit for outcoaching and out gameplanning Mora and the UCLA crew. Especially on the defensive side. All that shifting around prior to the snap that 82 hates really confounded Rosen. Too many looks for him to deal with. Pressure coming from too many different areas.

And even when we weren't blitzing, Cherry was ridiculous. He owned the UCLA line.

 

[Mainstreet]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7Nj9lUcl-k

About 18 yards of Ballages's 23 yard touchdown run was made while he was running backwards.