ASU Football: Herm Edwards press conference notebook (11/18)

After their fourth consecutive losses, Herm Edwards addressed the media and the looming questions about the Oregon State loss.

Two-point conversion attempt

No matter the time left on the clock, Edwards had told the coaches that if the team scores they are going for two. After a 10-play, 90-yard drive, they did just that. Except they didn’t come out with a lead and would eventually lose their fourth straight game.

“I wasn’t trying to tie a football game. We went on an 11-play drive for 90 yards. I felt like we had momentum with the game. When I looked at it, it was very simple for me it was we go 90 yards and we convert a 4th and 8 for a touchdown and we can’t make 2 yards.” Edwards mentioned that playing on the road and coming from behind, he didn’t want to go for the tie and head into overtime. In his eyes, he would do it again and go for the win. After being asked about the play call, Edwards said there are two ways to view the potential play call.

“You either take the quarterback and use him to come on the perimeter and give him an option to run or throw or you are going to give the ball to Eno. Those are your two options; those are your two best players.”

Defensive adjustments after halftime

In the past few weeks, it has been evident that the defense has been able to figure out opposing offenses in the second half. However, Edwards knows that might be bright thing, but he wants it to be from kickoff to the end of the game. That is why he always defers to get the defense in a grove and allow the offense to score first.

“In the beginning you have this plan, and this is what we are doing. A lot of it is human error, whether we don’t line up right or we do something wrong. It’s a lot of different factors. We get behind and it’s not like we invented some new coverages. We played maybe a little bit more cover 2 in the second half to alleviate the double moves and the big passes.

“We made some plays on third downs and got off the field and our offense got going and our offense started to move the ball and scoring. The confidence of the team got going and we just felt like we were going now. In all those games we always say you ran out of time. We just ran out of time.”

Before the last Sun Devil drive, the defense had stopped the Beavers offense three straight drives, giving the offense a chance to score and try and win the game.

No. 6 Oregon comes to Sun Devil Stadium for a primetime matchup

The highest ranked team from the Pac-12 heads from Eugene to Tempe to take on a Sun Devil team that has been known to take down ranked opponents. For Edwards, he knows that Oregon is an experienced team.

“It’s really simple, you are playing one of the better teams in the country. They are in here trying to present themselves as one of those teams in the playoff situation and we know that. Our guys are well aware who we are playing and what they bring on both sides of the football. I think our players know exactly what they are dealing with and maybe not our young players as much because they didn’t play them last year but the guys who were in the game last year understood the type of team, we played last year.

“They have got a lot of experience and they have played together for a long time. The defense, eight of them are juniors and seniors. The offensive line has played together for awhile and the quarterback came back another year. They are a really good football team and that is what our players know.”

Oregon ranks 14th in points per game (37.8) and 10th in lowest scoring defenses in the nation (14.80).

Bowl eligibility hanging on by a thread

What seemed like a nonchalant answer to go bowling, has quickly turned into glimmering hope. The Sun Devils have gone from a ranked 5-1 team to a five hundred team in a matter of weeks. Now, they have two chances in front of their home crowd to become bowl eligible.

“We have talked about it. You have an opportunity to get into a bowl that is critical for your program and I think it will be really big for us because we have an opportunity to get into a bowl with all these young guys. It speaks volume of what we can get accomplished, those extra days, practice, all that stuff helps you. There’s a rule that freshmen that are coming in, for the spring, they can actually practice. It’s big. It’s huge for our program to get that done and we have two games to try and get that solved.”

Being on time

Five players didn’t start the Oregon State game as Edwards pointed out to the media. He says he isn’t a rule guy but he holds people to high standards and his highest standard is being on time.

“To me when that’s not done, then you are hurting the team because we are waiting on you. This is a game where you have to be on time and discipline needs to be handed out. When you have a young team and so many young guys they got to understand that its real important to have and if it’s not then what are the consequences. You got to do something and now they see that coach will actually not play you. We are trying to grow these young guys into men, and the first you better do in life is always be on time.”