This one will not go down as a masterpiece. In fact, the Trojan offense was downright ugly for most of the game. But the Trojan defense showed up time and time again to repel the Sun Devils who had to change quarterbacks just to threaten SC.
All in all . . . we'll take the "W" and keep moving.
Here's a detailed look at the unit by unit grades:
QB - Matt Barkley didn't want to look at the stat sheet after going 7 - 22, for only 112 yards. But his stats would have been much better if not for some key dropped passes by receivers. And although Barkley was only sacked one time, he was harassed all night by the ASU Dline. Grade: D +
RBs/FB - Joe McKnight and Allen Bradford continue to run consistently, each pounding out 5 yards per carry on a combined 29 carries for about 150 yards. Bradford really could have blown the game open but tripped on the 40 yard line of what could have been a 60+ yard TD run. Grade: B
WRs/Tes - Not a good night for this unit. It was Damian Williams to the rescue, though, with a 75 yard catch and run TD that gave SC it's win. Tight ends Blake Ayles and Rhett Ellison had some key drops, however. Grade: D +
Oline - This group led the Trojans to about 150 yards on the ground, and gave up only one sack. But that was the good stuff. The bad included allowing the ASU Dline to pressure Barkley most of the night, and a committing a couple of penalties that stalled offensive drives. Grade: C minus
Defense
Dline - Strong night against the run, as this unit helped limit ASU to only 81 yards on the ground. They also had (3) sacks. NT Christian Topou forced a key fumble in the SC red zone. And young DE Wes Horton had a very good game with (6) tackles, and Malik Jackson and DT Derek Simmons tallied a sack each. Grade: B +
LBs - A solid night for the LBs in this one. MLB Chris Galippo had an INT, and OLB Shane Horton laid the wood a couple of times on some nice plays. Grade: B
DBs - Safety Will Harris was the star of the show with (2) INTs, including a "pick six" that was SC's first TD of the game. The unit did make one mistake allowing a deep TD pass, as CB Kevin Thomas got caught looking in the offensive backfield in coverage. Grade: C
Special Teams
Kicking/Coverage/Returns - FG kicker Jordan Congdon missed what could have been an important FG for SC, and punter Jacob Harfman had an up and down night getting a 51 yarder, but also only averaging 37 ypp. Grade: C minus
Coaching
The offense could never get going in this game. But the coaches did call some nice plays that were not executed, including a dropped potential TD pass to TE Blake Ayles and a crucial 3rd down pass to FB DJ Shoemate that was called back due to a penalty. Defensively, SC bottled up the ASU offense for the majority of the night. SC's defensive coaches knew what to do against ASU's starting QB Danny Sullivan.
Grade: C +
Prediction Winner:
JMW does it again!
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