In a game that was tightly contested until late in the second half, No. 18 Arizona State simply made too many mistakes to hang with No. 9 Oregon in arguably the toughest road environment in college football.
Personal fouls, sloppy execution and various untimely penalties doomed the Sun Devils in a game they led early and looked poised to take to the wire.
“Penalties; we had numerous ones in the second half, offensive pass interference, different things that hurt us,” Arizona State head coach Dennis Erickson said. “We have a touchdown, we get called for holding by our tight end down the field. You can go on and on. We didn’t play disciplined in the first half.”
Though the Sun Devils had a number of flaws to cite early on, they trailed the Ducks by only four points at halftime. Junior quarterback Brock Osweiler was particularly impressive, going 18-for-26 for 172 yards and two touchdowns before the break. However, his only pivotal mistake was one that swung the game’s momentum and gave Oregon the lead at the midway point.
Ahead by three and pressing deep into Oregon territory, Osweiler looked to one of his favorite targets, senior wide receiver Mike Willie. Willie streaked down the right sideline toward the corner of the Oregon end zone and appeared to be open. But just after Osweiler released an arcing throw his direction, Willie cut his path short and redirected his trajectory towards the center of the field. Oregon cornerback Cliff Harris intercepted the ball and returned it fifty yards to give Oregon possession in dangerous territory with less than a minute remaining in the second quarter.
“It was a route where it’s kind of an option route for the receiver,” said Osweiler. “You can either go vertical or take the post. I thought he was going to go vertical; obviously he took the post. And so it’s tough, but those plays are going to happen in a football game, and once again that’s just something we’ve got to learn from.”
Three plays, 50 yards and 24 seconds later, the Ducks were in the end zone thanks to a 12-yard pass from quarterback Darron Thomas to tight end David Paulson. Oregon seized the momentum and would get the ball back to start the second half.
In the third quarter Oregon continued to send multiple blitzes at Osweiler, and the team’s tactics proved effective. The towering quarterback had only five yards passing in the third quarter and stalled drive after drive in frustrating fashion.
Meanwhile, the Ducks did what they do best: pounding the ball on the ground relentlessly. Their offense became especially one-dimensional after starting quarterback Darron Thomas was knocked out with an apparent lower-leg injury. But the team saw very little drop-off behind backup quarterback and redshirt freshman Bryan Bennett, and junior running back Kenjon Barner (himself filling in for injured starter LaMichael James) had his best game of the year and one of the better efforts of his career. Barner dipped and dodged his way through Sun Devil defenders for 171 yards on 31 carries.
“It’s a system thing, I guess,” said Arizona State linebacker Shelly Lyons. “(Bennett) just came in and ran the Oregon offense. He still handed it to Kenjon, and we just didn’t make big plays. We let Kenjon get to the sideline a few times, and we didn’t keep contained. He didn’t do anything special, he just ran the offense.”
The Sun Devils also had a tough time containing Oregon running back De’Anthony Thomas. Thomas dazzled the record-setting crowd at Autzen Stadium with his lusiveness and pure speed. He racked up 73 rushing yards on seven carries (with two touchdowns) while also catching four passes for 24 yards.
“They didn’t do anything we hadn’t seen on film,” said Lyons. “When you play Oregon you’ve got to be great tacklers and disciplined in your gaps, and so it wasn’t anything we hadn’t seen. A few times we stuffed it and made some plays. Other times they had some big plays that hurt.”
“The bottom line — with Oregon you’re talking about one of the better teams in the country,” said Erickson. “You get ahead of them, you let them get the football and start getting that rhythm running the football, and you’ve got some issues.”