(Photo: Scotty Bara/WCSN)
As much as ASU would have liked to enter conference play undefeated, versus a team that many are calling the favorite in the Pac-12 South, their now 2-1 record with a 34-10 victory over New Mexico has to feel pretty good after starting 0-1.
“Tonight I thought we did some really, really good things and I thought we gained some confidence,” head coach Todd Graham said. “The guys obviously felt good about it. We would’ve loved to have lit it up all night long but I think our guys are in a good spot and I know how our guys are going to play in conference play.”
After a brutal two-week stretch against two triple option attacks, Graham had one thing to say about moving on to preparing for a more traditional offense.
“I can tell you I’m really tired of the triple option.”
The difference between this week and the prior one though, was the success at stopping the triple option.
Cal Poly had two rushers eclipse the 100-yard mark a week ago, New Mexico didn’t have one. Their leading rusher for the game had 72 yards, and 65 of them came on one play that resulted in the Lobos’ only touchdown of the evening.
“The triple option is, like I said last week, it’s very discipline-oriented style of offense,” redshirt senior safety Jordan Simone said. “So if one guy doesn’t do what he’s supposed to do, you see what happens in the long run that they had.”
Other than that run, the Lobos couldn’t get anything going to sustain a long enough drive where they could get in the endzone. On the other end, the Lobos couldn’t find a way to stop the Sun Devils’ redshirt senior quarterback Mike Bercovici after the first quarter.
Bercovici got off to a slow 0-for-4 start, and it didn’t look like his typical self after one quarter.
“You’ve got to convert on third downs, we missed that early,” Bercovici said.
He eventually found a rhythm, leading a drive which he went 7-for-7 passing, and capped it off with a 14-yard touchdown pass to redshirt junior receiver Tim White. Bercovici went on to complete 15-of-16 pass attempts after the next drive.
Where the game really opened up for Bercovici was in the open field, rushing for 15 yards and picking up a touchdown.
“If they’re going to let me run then I’m going to do that,” Bercovici said. “We’ve been working on it all week and it’s exciting when you can make plays happen with your feet, it opens things up in our entire offense.”
His teammates gave his running ability very high praise as well, Simone even went as far to compare him to Michael Vick in the Madden video games.
While Bercovici’s touchdown run seemingly put the game out of reach for New Mexico, the real dagger came with 13:26 left in the game, when Bercovici found sophomore running back Demario Richard on the sideline, who ran for 93 yards and extended the Sun Devil lead to 31-10.
Richard finished with 104 rushing yards and 151 receiving yards, which was the most receiving yards in a game for any Sun Devils running back ever.
“He’s one of the hardest working guys on our team. He’s probably matured more than any guy on our team,” Graham said. “He runs with an attitude.”
One of the biggest question marks and one of the only downsides to tonight’s game for the Sun Devils was redshirt senior wide receiver Devin Lucien leaving the game in the second quarter with a left leg injury and not returning. Lucien had four catches for 43 yards before leaving the game.
Lucien among many others were not out on the field tonight, and getting healthy will be one of the main keys before facing USC next Saturday to open Pac-12 play.
