The House Of Heat

Whew, that was a close one. After coming out of the tunnel strongly and getting out to a 20-6 lead early in the fourth quarter, the Sun Devils gave us another one of those oh shit, not again moments with a dropped snap on an extra point attempt. The bad juju from yet another Rudy Carpenter fuck-up carried over to piss-poor offensive play, a shanked punt, an avalanche of penalties, and the loss of yet another Hell Hog Stephen Berg for the year. The defense came together when it really counted, though, and Arizona State was able to escape the jaws of their own shortcomings and get a much needed win.

The Good
Everything on offense, for starters. Carp had yet another 2005-like efficient day going 16-23 and no interceptions for the second game in a row. Ryan Torain had a strengthy day with 99 yards on 23 carries to raise what looks like a decent 2008 draft stock, even though Keegan Herring stole the show with his 65-yard touchdown run on a toss play that was just added to the playbook this week. The team played with passion an a sense of urgency, something some are crediting to a fiery speech given by offensive line coach Brent Myers that was inspired by one of his favorite contemporary Christian songs. Yeah, I'm just as shocked as you are on that one. Good to see someone on the coaching staff stepping it up, even if Koetter pisses on the idea in front of the press.

“Nothing against Coach Myers, but players have to play,” Koetter said. “No speech carries over for a whole game, I don’t care if it’s Knute Rockne, Vince Lombardi, Brent Myers or Dirk Koetter. It was a hell of a speech, but speeches are overrated.”

Just take the win and say thank you. Ass.

Coach Myers: Does this guy know how to party or what?!

Additional kudos to the D for playing big when it counted, and a big slap on the ass for Josh Barrett who had nine tackles and two interceptions that may very well have made the difference in the outcome of this game.

The Bad
Well, there's the fourth quarter breakdown where the team assumed victory or whatever happened to scare the piss ot of me. Playing four quarters of solid, fundamental football has been a challenge for Sun Devil football as far back as I care to remember and I don't know where to start to mend this problem; it is as ingrained into Sun Devil Stadium as sunburn and underage drinking. Jonathan Johnson shanked a punt and Jesse Ainsworth still can't hit a kick of more than 35 yards. This may come back to haunt this team (I feel like I've said this before), and it almost did on Saturday. Big thumbs down to yours truly for overhyping the arrival of Kyle Williams, who made a debut of Mike Williams proportions by dropping his first kickoff return and getting the Devils pinned deep in Husky territory. He did catch one pass for two yards, though. Woop-tee-frickin-doo.

The Ugly
Penalties. Aaaarrrrgh! WTF? How do you fix a problem as chronic as this one? The Devils are at/near the top of the national list of penalized teams. I'm stunned on this one- 16 of them for 122 yards. Just by comparison, Washington had 126 yards...of RUSHING. Also horrifying to see offensive lineman Stephen Berg out for the year with a knee injury, joining roommate and fellow senior hog Andrew Carnahan on the short list of players that will never play for the Sun Devils again. It really is a shame for these guys, particularly for any hopes of an NFL career. Barring a decision of reason and sympahy by the NCAA (not bloody likely) to grant a 6th year of eligibility, they are joined by Zach Krula, another hog with health issues dating back to last year. These three shoud be the anchors of the best line in the Pac-10, but bad fortune has reared its ugly head. *single tear*

Labels: ASU alumni, Dirk's a horse's ass, surrounded by morons