Arizona State shrugged off a less than stellar start and came away with a 41-20 victory over their in-state rival Northern Arizona Lumberjacks Saturday night, in front of a half-empty Sun Devil Stadium.
Steven Threet passed for 391 yards and three touchdowns, and junior college transfer Mike Willie caught eight passes for 114 yards for the Sun Devils, who played their second straight FCS opponent in as many weeks.
ASU’s victory might look great on paper, but head coach Dennis Erickson was disappointed with the teams performance.
“I’m not happy with how we played,” he said after the game, “We did not play very well for whatever reason. We weren’t in rhythm offensively like I thought we would be.”
The start of the game was almost identical to last week’s matchup with Portland State. Thanks to three penalties and a couple of dropped passes, the Sun Devils went 3-and-out on their first offensive drive and were forced to punt from their own 3-yard line.
NAU quarterback Michael Herrick led the offense on a nine-play, 49-yard drive, ending in a field goal that gave the Lumberjacks an early 3-0 lead.
ASU’s offense responded, as Threet connected with Jamal Miles on a 6-yard touchdown pass that capped off a 52-yard drive.
The Sun Devils led 17-10 at halftime, and eventually built up a 27-13 lead with only 3:37 left in the third quarter.
But the Sun Devils knack for penalties hurt them once again, as a roughing the passer penalty on James Brooks, and an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Vontaze Burfict paved the way for a Herrick 35-yard touchdown pass to Khalil Paden, cutting the lead to 27-20.
All of the sudden, fans at Sun Devil Stadium felt a sense of uneasiness. The thought that ASU could be the fifth FBS team to be fall to an FCS team on the day seemed like a real possibility.
But the Sun Devils responded with an eight play, 80-yard touchdown drive, higlighted by a 45-yard pass from Threet to Aaron Pflugrad, extending the lead to 34-20 and never looking back.
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Miscellanous notes
-One of the negatives in the game was the penalties, as ASU racked up 131 yards in yellow flags. It was ASU’s second straight game with over 100-yards, and Erickson was clearly upset about it.
“It’s going to cost us a game,” he said. “When it costs us a football game, is that what it’s going to take for us to learn?”
-ASU must win five of its remaining 10 games to become bowl eligibile, since it played two FCS opponents in the same season, and only one of the wins can count towards bowl eligibility.
-With the win Saturday night, the Sun Devils successfully completed the easy part of their schedule. Now comes the hard part. Four of ASU’s next five games will be on the road, and three of the next five will be against teams ranked in the top 25, starting with this Saturday’s game against #11 Wisconsin in Madison. Let the fun begin.
-You can hear the ASU-Wisconsin game live on The Blaze 1330 AM, as Andrew Gruman, Mike Sackley, and Josh Green will have the call from Camp Randall Stadium in Madison. Coverage starts at 12:00 p.m. pacific time, followed by kickoff at 12:30 p.m. pacific time.
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