The House Of Heat

Like this, with tv.

No tailgates. No out-of-town visitors. No calls from work. This will be the first lazy at-home Saturday of football watching in over a month, and a full day of football begets a full day of digital scribbling. I'll run a liveblog all the live long day, starting around noon EST and running until the end of the ASU game. Since I'm stuck with regional action I'll need schadenfraude updates from the UA-USC game so stop by early and often. But first, a few things to ponder regarding tonight's matchup with the Huskies.

Last week's game against WSU was far and away ASU's worst of the season, as the Cougs held a 451-296 yard edge in total offense and Jason Gesser Alex Brink had his way with the ASU secondary with 369 passing yards. Look for the Devils to rebound after their piss-poor showing on the Palouse with a ton of energy and excitement, especially back in fornt of the home crowd, which is projected to be a lowly 62,000. Still plenty of room on that bandwagon, unfortunately.

Washington QB Jake Locker is for real, but he's not yet Alex Brink in terms of passing ability and his receiving corps has a way to go before they get in the company of Bumpus, Gibson, et. al. The Sun Devil defense's weak link is definitely the weak side corner, manned by Baloney and Bolden. If Locker is able to pick on that duo and complete a few deep passes early it could open up an otherwise inept Husky rushing attack and make for a long night in Tempe. Locker's main weapon thus far has been his mobility, both while escaping pass rushes and through designed draws. Even though he's not tipping his hand, expect Coach Erickson to employ a spy on Locker, most likely the speedy and hard-hitting Robert James.

Eh, pass blocking. It has been the bane of the ASU offense all season, and they'll face a tsunami of blitzes once again until they start to make teams pay for doing so with hot routes, quick slants, shovel passes, etc. I wuld like to think the ASU staff has thought of this too, but perhaps they're saving it for a stronger opponent? One can only hope. ASU held a 9+ minute advantage in time of possession against Wazzu, and it really showed on the last two ASU drives as Ryan Torain had gaping, truck-sized holes through which he could run. It will peobably be pass to set up the run once again, but when called upon the run blocking has been superb.



I'm more nervous than usual about this one. UW has dropped three in a row against top-notch comeptition and is looking for the opportunity to break out with a statement game. ASU is 6-0 because they've been letting other teams beat themselves through penalties and turnovers, but the Huskies commit the fewest turnovers in the Pac-10 and they boast a conservative, run-heavy offense that will keep turnovers low. ASU needs to make an attention-grabbing statement of their own after shitting the bed in the first game the east-coast sleepyheads were able to watch. The Huskies have played tough in the first half of all of their games but have let opportunities slip away as teams make second-half adjustments. This is tailor-made for ASU, and look for them to pull away in the second half.

Labels: anecdotal evidence, hell hogs, opponent previews