Lets take a look at how we did against the Cardinal, bullet points style.
- Rudy Carpenter! - Another great game for Rudy. 75% completion, alomost 350 yards passing, 3 TDs. That one interception was not so hot, and he did lose a fumble, but Carpenter is showing how the passing game is going to be one of our biggest strengths this year. He has now thrown for a school record 733 yards in the first two games.
- The O-line needs some major work before the Georgia game. Stanford was able to put quite a bit of pressure on Rudy throughout the game, sacked him twice, forced him to hurry his throws a few times, and hit him a lot. Coach Erickson, following the game, said, "
"It's amazing how many times he gets hit and he gets right back up," ASU coach Dennis Erickson said. "He makes plays."
Indeed he does. But less hitting please
- Run game - Thunder and Lightening has begun to show up. Nance (18/75yards/1TD) and Herring (12/59/1TD) combined for 30 carries for 134 yards and 2 TDs, good for a 4.46 YPC average. Very solid, and very nice contributions from these two. The other runners credited with carries (Bass, DeWitty, Carpenter) manged 5 attempts for -6 yards. Ha. Interestingly, Jarrell Woods got no carries.
- The defense tightening up in the second half was a great sign, so was the constant pressure and the turnovers. Holding Stanford to 233 total yards, with under 4 yards per run and under 4 yards per pass, to go along with the 3 interceptions was a great performance. Holding Stanford to only 7 points in the second half was huge.
- Special teams was solid. Our kickoff return coverage was a little lax, but Weber was a stud again.
- The 10 Penalties for 163 yards though - completely unnacceptable. Half of those calls seemed extremely ticky tacky to me, but I might have been influenced by the 60,000 screaming Devils fans around me - but who knows.
All in all - good game boys, lots to build on.