Six Points: Another holiday season at home

The UCLA Bruins got defensive touchdowns from Alterraun Verner and Akeem Ayers and Rick Neuheisel’s team became bowl-eligible with a 23-13 win over the Arizona State Sun Devils at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena on Saturday.

Bowl eligibility. Remember that?

In 2007, when the Sun Devils reeled off victories in head coach Dennis Erickson’s first 8 games, many maroon and gold faithful were ready to appoint him athletic director, university president and governor.

Two years later, there are many fans who are starting to grumble about the Sun Devils seeking a new head coach, or at least a change in his coaching staff. Since that impressive first season, Erickson’s Sun Devils have gone 9-14, and will not qualify for a bowl game for the second straight season. They’ve already clinched back-to-back losing seasons for the first time since 1946 and 1947.

The script on Saturday was the same. The defense played well enough for the Sun Devils to win, but the offense scored only 2 touchdowns and turned the ball over 6 times. That’s the season (or last two) in a nutshell for Erickson and the Sun Devils.

Here’s six things that stood out from the Sun Devils’ 5th straight loss…

1

The Sun Devils’ best play isn’t in the playbook. That’s because both ASU touchdowns came on plays that completely broke down. Pressure forced quarterback Samson Szakacsy to roll out of the pocket, and twice he found Kyle Williams behind the defense for touchdowns. Other than those two plays, the Devils again did next to nothing offensively.

2

There was a bright spot…sort of. What can you say about Dimitri Nance? The senior tailback was again one of the few bright spots for the Sun Devils on Saturday. Nance ran for 110 yards on 21 carries in the loss to UCLA. He had 76 of those yards in the first quarter. He’s good at protecting the ball, and is constantly applauded by the coaching staff for his solid work in pass protection.
But, his lack of speed has really cost the Sun Devils this season. It was very evident, especially early in the game, vs. UCLA, that the mere presence of the fleet-footed Szakacsy in the backfield really spread out things in the interior of UCLA’s defensive front. In the first quarter, Nance was running through gigantic holes in the Bruins’ line, and on a couple of occasions, was a half-step away from breaking long touchdown runs. I’m inclined to think that if freshman tailback Cameron Marshall (who didn’t get one carry on Saturday) was running through those same holes, he’d have broken a couple of long ones–or at least gain more than 15 yards, which was Nance’s longest run against the Bruins.

3

Pick your poison. The Sun Devils have killed themselves all season long with untimely, costly penalties. They rank 119th (out of 120 teams) in the country in penalties this season. But yesterday, the Sun Devils played a relatively clean first half, only being flagged three times for 12 yards before halftime.
This week, it was turnovers that killed ASU. On the game’s first possession, Szakacsy threw a pick that was returned 68 yards for a touchdown by UCLA corner Alterraun Verner. Then late in the 2nd quarter, a fumble by tight end Trevor Kohl turned what would have been a first and ten at the UCLA 35-yard line into a turnover. The Bruins didn’t score directly as a result, but after punting back to ASU, things got really sloppy. On first down, Szakacsy had the ball stripped on first down at his own 20-yard line and UCLA linebacker Akeem Ayers picked it up and scored from 9 yards out to make it a 17-7 lead.
On the ensuing kickoff, Jamal Miles coughed it up, and Sean Westgate recovered at the ASU 17-yard line. Four plays later, Kai Forbath booted a 20-yard field goal to build the lead to 13.
In a 2:16 span, the game completely unraveled for Arizona State because of very shoddy ball protection. None of the three fumbles in that span were the result of huge hits or even stellar defensive play. They all resulted from sloppiness.

4

…and while we’re on turnovers. After three games, the Sun Devils were an impressive +10 in the turnover category, tops in the nation. Since then, Arizona State has been very generous with the football, turning it over 25 times and registering a -13 in the same category.
During the current five-game losing streak, ASU is -12 in turnover margin.

5

Where was the pressure? UCLA ranked 8th in the conference in allowing sacks on their quarterbacks this season. Yet, Kevin Prince and Kevin Craft remained upright for nearly the whole game on Saturday. The Sun Devils didn’t register a sack against UCLA. It was the 5th time this season, and second game in a row that the ASU defense didn’t get at least one sack.
A deeper look reveals that of the Sun Devils’ 22 quarterback sacks this season, 12 of them came against an overmatched, patchwork offensive line against Washington State. So that means, in the other 10 games, ASU has gotten to the quarterback only ten times.
Hate to single anybody out, but senior defensive end Dexter Davis has been conspicuous by his absence on the stat sheet for much of the year. After piling up 21.5 sacks combined in 2007 and 2008, Davis has just 2.5 this season, and only .5 sacks against teams not named Washington State this season.

6

A silver lining. At least Sun Devil fans won’t have to watch U of A celebrate clinching a Pac-10 championship on the field at Sun Devil Stadium next Saturday. Thanks, Oregon.

Highlights from FoxSports.com/Fox Sports

<br/><a href="http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/highlights-asu-ucla/12h106d2?fg=sharenoembed" title="Highlights: ASU - UCLA">Video: Highlights: ASU - UCLA</a>

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