Sept. 22, 2007
Final Stats | Quotes | Notes | Photo Gallery
by Matt Storey, ASU Media Relations
Big plays were the story of the night for ASU in its Pac-10 opener, as the Sun Devils rallied from 19-0 down at the end of the first quarter to defeat Oregon State 44-32 before a crowd of 56,099 Saturday.
The offense scored four touchdowns of more than 40 yards, and the defense intercepted five Oregon State passes to push ASU to its second comeback from a double-digit deficit in three weeks. The Sun Devils trailed 14-0 after the first quarter against Colorado Sept. 8 before rallying to a 33-14 victory.
"I can't say enough about those players and what they did," head coach Dennis Erickson said. "Our coaches did a nice job on both sides of the football. They had to make a lot of adjustments at halftime and during the game."
Rudy Carpenter had his biggest game of the season thus far, finishing 25-36 for 361 yards and four touchdowns.
He also had two scrambles for big plays in the second quarter as ASU rallied. The first resulted in a 64-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Mike Jones, and the second came after he picked up his own fumble and connected with tight end Tyrice Thompson for a 34-yard gain on a drive that ended with a field goal.
"It was a great effort by Rudy," Erickson said. "He scrambled out a number of times and made big plays. He's a warrior; he's a competitor, I've said this all along. He just fights like heck to give himself a chance to win."
Jones had four catches for a career-high 124 yards with two touchdowns, the 64-yarder in the second quarter and a 43-yard score in the third. It was his second two-touchdown game of the season, as he also scored twice against Colorado.
Rudy Burgess had six catches for 38 yards and Kyle Williams added four receptions for 50 yards to join Jones in leading the Sun Devil receivers.
Ryan Torain also got involved in the passing game. He had a 48-yard touchdown catch in the third quarter that gave ASU its first lead of the game, and then he caught a swing pass and scored from seven yards out early in the fourth.
He also had a 41-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter, and though he finished with 95 rushing yards on 26 carries, the Sun Devil running game struggled much of the night against the Oregon State defense.
"We knew they were going to have a good rushing defense," Carpenter said. "Part of our plan was to throw the ball. Obviously, anytime we can get our run game going we want to do that, but we couldn't so we threw it tonight."
The ASU defense also continued to impress in the victory. Though Oregon State piled up more than 500 yards of total offense, the Sun Devils intercepted Beavers quarterback Sean Canfield five times, including four in the second half, and they held the Beavers to just 13 points in the final three quarters.
Linebacker Robert James and safety Troy Nolan had two interceptions each and cornerback Justin Tryon had one.
"We got some big plays, interceptions, and that was just such a key," Erickson said. "They were moving the ball on us really in the first half, and we shut them down pretty good in the second half."
Oregon State jumped out quickly and led 16-0 less than six minutes into the game. ASU's first possession ended with a bad snap going over punter Jonathan Johnson's head and into the end zone, where Johnson fell on the ball for a safety.
The Beavers received the kickoff after the safety and scored six plays later when Canfield found tight end Howard Croom for a 14-yard touchdown.
Carpenter then threw his only interception of the game on the first play of ASU's ensuing possession, and Oregon State needed just three plays to score again as running back Yvenson Bernard scored from a yard out.
After an ASU three-and-out, a personal foul facemask against Sun Devil cornerback Chris Baloney helped the Beavers get in range for kicker Alexis Serna, who made a 47-yard field goal to give his team a 19-0 lead.
"We've been there before, against Colorado we were down 14-0," Carpenter said of the team's attitude dealing with an early deficit. "We knew that our defense was going to stop them eventually and we just had to score some points, which is really what we did later in the game."
The Sun Devils began to come alive early in the second quarter, when Carpenter found Jones for the 64-yard touchdown on the second play of the quarter.
James' first interception led to kicker Thomas Weber's 29-yard field goal, and Weber made a 30-yarder on ASU's final drive of the first half to make it 19-13 at the break.
Oregon State wide receiver Brandon Powers had a 20-yard touchdown run in the third quarter to put the Beavers up 26-13, but the Sun Devils responded with a run of 31 unanswered points.
Two one-play touchdown drives in the third quarter, Carpenter's 43-yard touchdown pass to Jones and the 48-yarder to Torain, gave ASU a 27-26 lead as the fourth quarter began.
The go-ahead score was set up by Nolan's first interception of the night.
"It was real exciting," Nolan said. "I just wanted to make a play for the team just to get us back on top and get our momentum going."
The Sun Devils then scored on their first two possessions of the final quarter, with Torain's seven-yard touchdown catch and 41-yard run for another score, and the defense intercepted Canfield on two of Oregon State's first three drives in the fourth.
From 4:53 to play in the third to the 6:45 mark of the fourth, ASU scored on four of its five possessions and forced turnovers on three of Oregon State's five possessions to take control of the game.
Weber made an 18-yard field goal to finish ASU's 31-point run. Canfield found tight end Gabe Miller for an 11-yard touchdown with less than one minute left in the fourth, but the Beavers failed on their two-point conversion attempt, and ASU recovered the onside kick to seal the victory.
NOTES: Carpenter had his eighth career 300-yard passing game, the most among active Pac-10 quarterbacks...He also moved to fourth on the all-time ASU list with 51 touchdown passes, moving ahead of Mike Pagel at 48...The five interceptions is the most ASU had in a game since picking off five passes in a 55-22 win over California on Nov. 7, 1998...The Sun Devils now have nine total interceptions on the season, recording at least one in each game...ASU won its Pac-10 opener for the third time in four seasons, with all three of those wins coming against Oregon State.