Nov. 22, 2007
Erickson vs. Top 25
TEMPE, Ariz. --
By Matt Storey, ASU Media Relations
The ASU football team's Pac-10 title hopes took a hit Thursday, as USC defeated the Sun Devils 44-24 in front of a sellout crowd of 71,706 on Thanksgiving night.
"They did a nice job of preparing and a good job of coaching," head coach Dennis Erickson said of USC. "They played hard, and we didn't play well.
"When you play a team that good and don't play very well, you don't tackle, you don't do the things that we've been doing all year; then it's going to turn out like that. We're all disappointed."
Quarterback John David Booty led the way for the Trojan offense. He finished 26-39 passing for 375 yards and five total touchdowns, four passing and one rushing.
Booty did a lot of his damage early, as he went 13-16 for 139 yards and two passing touchdowns on his team's first three drives of the game, which resulted in 17 USC points.
"They had a great plan," Erickson said. "Everything was bootlegs, getting out on the corner, and play action pass. They did a nice job of planning against us."
USC's defense also impressed, as the Trojans allowed only two ASU offensive touchdowns and held the Sun Devils to just 16 yards rushing for the game.
"When we can't run it, we've got problems," Erickson said. "We've been able to do that for the most part. But we couldn't do it, and then we got behind, and it was impossible for us to catch up. That's the worst we've ran the football."
The Trojans also had consistent pressure on ASU quarterback Rudy Carpenter, sacking him six times, with four of those by defensive end Lawrence Jackson.
"They came to hit tonight," Carpenter said. "That is the one thing that they did do. They hit me and they hit me good. They're a good team."
Carpenter battled through the USC defensive pressure to finish 21-30 passing for 240 yards and a touchdown, with sophomore Chris McGaha serving as his leading receiver with five catches for 85 yards.
Senior Rudy Burgess added four catches for 50 yards, and he set a new ASU single-game record with his 166 kickoff return yards, including a 98-yard kick return touchdown in the first quarter.
Sophomore Dimitri Nance led the Sun Devils in rushing with just 19 yards on nine carries.
ASU's defense gave up a season-high 44 points and failed to force a turnover for the first time this season.
"Normally we're a very good tackling team," Erickson said of his team's defensive struggles. "Normally we get turnovers, get around the football, and we didn't do that, for whatever reason."
USC got the scoring started on its first possession. After wide receiver Ronald Johnson returned the opening kickoff 49 yards, the Trojans went 51 yards on seven plays for a touchdown. Booty was 6-6 for 45 yards on the drive, capping it off with a four-yard scoring pass to wide receiver Vidal Hazelton.
ASU responded when Burgess returned the ensuing kickoff for a 98-yard touchdown, but USC answered back quickly.
The Trojans got a 42-yard field goal by David Buehler on their second possession, and then they went 54 yards on seven plays on their next drive that ended when Booty found fullback Stanley Havili for a five-yard touchdown and a 17-7 lead.
Having rallied from four double-digit first quarter deficits already this season, the Sun Devils appeared ready to make another comeback. A 12-play, 74-yard drive ended with a four-yard touchdown pass from Carpenter to junior Mike Jones and brought the team within three at the end of the first.
ASU then tied the game on its first possession of the second quarter with a 25-yard field goal by freshman kicker Thomas Weber.
After forcing a second consecutive 3-and-out, the Sun Devils drove down to the USC 33, but a sack on fourth-and-1 gave the Trojans the ball and the momentum.
Buehler's 20-yard field goal gave USC a three-point lead, and then Booty's one-yard quarterback sneak touchdown run with nine seconds left in the first half gave his team a 27-17 lead.
Unlike in five previous games this season, ASU could not rally in the second half. USC outscored the Sun Devils 17-0 in the third quarter behind Buehler's third field goal and two more Booty touchdown passes, the first to running back Joe McKnight and the other to tight end Fred Davis.
That second touchdown came on a fourth-and-2 with USC at the ASU 34, as Booty found his senior tight end for a short completion before Davis broke several tackles and ran into the end zone.
"We were just too excited and overwhelmed," safety Troy Nolan said of his team's missed tackles. "We just didn't wrap up at times. They were just running through our tackles and making plays. We just got outplayed."
Nance had a two-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter, but that was all the Sun Devils would get as they suffered their second loss of the season.
NOTES: Burgess' kickoff return touchdown was just the second by an ASU player at home in the last 21 years, with the other being Terry Richardson's 100-yard return against Oregon Sept. 30, 2006...Burgess also became ASU's all-time leader in kickoff return yards, as his 166 return yards on the night moved him to 1,301 in his career...Weber's field goal was his 20th of the season, moving him within one of the Pac-10 freshmen record and just three back of the NCAA mark...ASU's 16 rushing yards was its lowest total of the season...The Sun Devils were outscored in the second half for only the second time this year, with the other coming in their only previous defeat, a 35-23 loss to Oregon Nov. 3.