Mornin Mates...
Today's Topic = It's A Good Thing
We didn't lose the game last night thanks to some key players, one in particular, who snatched the win from the jaws of defeat in the final minutes of the game, if you ask me...
The defense again scored a TD on a turnover and our special teams, aside from an ill advised penalty, played well, especially our placekicker who made all three of his FG attempts...
But, it did give up an 80 TD on a short pass, where we missed a tackle, letting the receiver dash for a TD in a very crucial part of the game in the 4th quarter...
On offense, we didn't turn the ball over and rushed for well over 300 yards but couldn't pass the passing test in several critical situations...
We are seeing the same passing misfires that have been reported about our QB during the preseason, that looks like a pattern that we will just have to live with throughout the season...
Two games now where we've had open receivers downfield who the QB has missed by over-throwing them by about the same distance each time...
He also missed a lot of easier throws throughout the game but more than made up for those misses by running to daylight, out of the pocket, on several occasions for big gains and a TD...
At the end of the night, although we started to look like the same old collapsing Sun Devils, we avoided the
could'a, should'a, would'a outcome that a loss would have brought about...
The "same old Devils" narrative was avoided, thank goodness...
Now, looking ahead, we seem to have a more believable path to six or more wins to become bowl eligible,
if we don't get in our own way with stupid football...
Texas State will be a real challenge as they have a solid team that will be playing at home with a chance to knock off a P-4 team...
I don't know if they are as good as No Illinois looked yesterday in South Bend when they upset the Fighting Irish 16-14, but they have already beaten two teams and a win over the Devils would be a big, big deal for them...
So, one of the questions for today is this...did you see improvement from our first to our second game last night..??
That is where "conventional wisdom" says a team improves the most and I would've thought we did based on making three FGs and rushing the way we did and we closed out the game, but I'm still wondering about some things, especially as it relates to our passing attack, thus far...
Maybe I'm making a "mountain out of a mole hill" but that has me wondering...
Am I over-reacting or not, even though we had a big win over a SEC opponent last night..??
One thing is for sure, IMHO, the Big-12, for the most part, is pretty widen open, and it looks like we can compete and beat almost any team on our schedule if we play up to our potential...
What do you think..??
Am I over-reacting and am I wrong about being able to compete with and beat most of the other teams in the Big-12 based on what we've seen of our Sun Devils and the other teams in the Big-12..??
We could've folded last night but didn't and for that I'm very thankful this fine morning in the desert...
G'day Mates and Go Devils!!!
arizonastate.rivals.com
