Georgia Dawgs ASU

 

The Georgia Bulldogs rolled into Tempe with a business trip mentality looking to make quick work of the Sun Devils.  Georgia defeated ASU under the lights, in the nationally televised ABC game 27-10.  The loss puts Arizona State at 2-2 and the second year of Dennis Erickson’s tenure is off to a disappointing start.  Erickson was brought in to rebuild a Devils program and bring a level of consistency this school has not achieved since joining the Pac-10.  Coach Erickson had successful year two’s at his previous stops; 8-3 Idaho, 9-3 Washington State, 10-2 Miami, 11-1 Oregon State.  He will be hard pressed to be able to achieve that kind of accomplishment here, as ASU has hit its first crises of the Dennis Erickson era.  After the bye week the Sun Devils hit the meat of their conference schedule with 4 of the next 5 games on the road and the one home game is against Oregon.

The funny thing about last night’s game, Georgia was not overly impressive.  The game was there for Arizona State and they did not take it.  The difference in the contest was the Bulldogs took advantage of their opportunities to make plays while ASU faltered.  On the first drive of the game Georgia came out and threw three straight passes going away from its strength, the running game and went three and out.  With a chance to take the momentum and make the red sea that was in the upper deck sit down, the Devils drive came to a screeching halt at their 46 yard line.

Rudy Carpenter and Chris McGaha had the opportunity to connect twice on big pass plays down the sideline and could not execute.  After Georgia scored their first touchdown, Blair Walsh kicked the ensuing kick off out of bounds giving Arizona State the ball at their 40 yard line.  Mike Jones and Kerry Taylor proceeded to drop the next two passes, ASU went three and out and had a punt blocked. 

 

The Sun Devils were handed new life at the end of the second quarter, down 14-0 when Georgia had a personal foul on Thomas Weber’s 49 yard FG, giving Arizona State another opportunity to stick the ball in the end zone.  The Devils ran the ball on second and third down inside the Bulldogs ten, bringing back shades of the UNLV overtime. They settled for a short field goal by Weber and Georgia stormed down the field to take a 21-3 lead to close the second quarter.

 

To begin the second half ASU drove 71 yards in four minutes and 26 seconds, cutting the Dawgs lead to 21-10.  Carpenter looked sharp, going 6-6 and accounting for 65 of the 71 yards.  On the ensuing kickoff Erickson had Weber do a pooch kick, similar to the one Neil Rackers performed last week in the Cardinals-Dolphins game, Shaun Chapas fumbled.  The Sun Devils were not able to come up with the loose ball.  The University of Georgia fumbled three times throughout the game and ASU did not recover one them.  The Sun Devils had chances in this game to make plays, but did not step to the plate.

 

Arizona State’s run game was non-existent.  Their longest run came on what was really a pass, but Carpenter threw the ball to Kyle Williams behind the line of scrimmage and his 11 yard scamper was considered a run.  Dimitri Nance and Shaun DeWitty each averaged less than two yards per carry.  Mark Richt in his post game press conference said, “We’re always going to want to be a two dimensional football team, we always want to have balance, without it you just don’t have a chance to win every time you play, your going to get beat if you become one dimensional.”   He was talking about his team, but there could not have been a better way to sum up the Devils offensive performance.  Georgia knew that ASU could not run the ball against them, Arizona State was one dimensional and they did not have a chance.

 

The Sun Devils bye week could not come at a better time.  They limp into the week off on a two game losing streak needing to regroup and start over.  The goals that they set out for themselves at the beginning of the season can still be accomplished and Coach Erickson needs to drill that into the heads of his players during the two week hiatus.  The road to a Rose Bowl berth is difficult, but still possible, especially with USC poised to make another appearance in the National Championship game.  In college football it is always better to lose games at the beginning of the season than at the end.  ASU started off the season slow, but if they finish it fast Dennis Erickson can continue his streak of excellent year number two’s. 

written by bryan