ASU's offense doesn't show up in bad loss to USC

LOS ANGELES - Rudy Carpenter battled through a sore left ankle on Saturday to make his 37th consecutive start at quarterback for Arizona State. But so what?

Bordow: Sun Devils have dozed off in Pac-10

Carpenter gives it a go on broken ankle

Read 'Blogging with the Devils'

For physical ailments are not killing the Sun Devils. Rather, after they bumbled and stumbled away what should have been a competitive game at eighth-ranked Southern California, the burning question is how their heads are, at least on offense.

Nothing could help ASU on that side of the ball - not Carpenter starting, not excellent field position, not five takeaways by the defense - in a 28-0 loss at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The Sun Devils were shut out for the first time since 2004.

"I'm perplexed," coach Dennis Erickson said. "I'd have trouble spelling that, but 'perplexed' is a good word. We're better than how we are playing offensively. We have to find a way to become more productive offensively. We just have to. We have six games left, and we have an opportunity to compete in all six of them.

"But we have to find a way to do it. We've been studying a way to do it, but it just hasn't happened."

ASU (2-4 overall, 1-2 Pac-10) has lost four in a row, its longest streak in six seasons.

The defense played its best game of the season on Saturday, consistently getting heat on USC quarterback Mark Sanchez and making a star-studded offense look ordinary. The Trojans compiled 92 of their 387 total yards during a fourth-quarter touchdown drive against exhausted Sun Devil defenders.

"We've played enough football to know that there will be games where we struggle, and the offense struggles," linebacker Mike Nixon said. "We have to pick each other up, and it is going to be give and take. We want to give the offense the ball in the best field position we can, and it does get frustrating when we are not able to take advantage of opportunities."

It is hard for a team to not score points when it forces five turnovers, crosses the 50-yard line on seven of its 16 possessions, has a first down inside the opponents' 25 three times and boasts an All-American kicker. But the Sun Devils managed to do it.

"I can honestly say I don't remember being this ineffective on offense in my entire career," Erickson said.

Against USC (4-1, 2-1), the Sun Devils' beleaguered ground game had some success, as the running backs combined for 124 yards on 30 carries. But the troubles on third down worsened, as ASU went just 3-for-18, and it looked more clueless the closer it got to the end zone:

The Sun Devils had first-and-10 at the USC 21 in the second quarter. After that became fourth-and-24 at the 35, they punted.

In the third quarter, ASU recovered a fumble at the USC 21 and took over at the 14 after an interception. Both of those possessions ended when kicker Thomas Weber had a field-goal attempt blocked.

"We ran the ball and made some plays here and there, but overall, we couldn't do a lot," said Carpenter, who was 11-for-20 for 126 yards and an interception that was returned for a touchdown. "I know a lot of guys on defense are down, and they are frustrated with how we've played on offense the last month."

Carpenter, a game-time decision to play after being limited in practice, was taken out midway through the third quarter and replaced by Danny Sullivan. His streak of 20 games with at least one TD pass (dating back to the 2006 Arizona game) ended.

On the interception, Carpenter attempted a long out pass to wide receiver Michael Jones when cornerback Kevin Thomas broke on the ball and brought it back 46 yards to the end zone.

"That ball stayed in the air a long time," Carpenter said. "I couldn't put as much as I wanted to on it."

The Trojans scored on the game's opening possession, as a 34-yard catch by wide receiver Ronald Johnson - ASU cornerback Omar Bolden, beaten on the play, sat out the rest of the first half - set up Sanchez's 1-yard touchdown plunge. USC responded to the Sun Devils' failure to score from the 21 with a seven-play, 80-yard march culminating with Damian Johnson's 4-yard TD catch.

ASU has a week off, allowing Erickson time to get inside his offense's collective heads.

"Obviously, this is a confidence problem," Erickson said. "We get ourselves in the situations that we've gotten in, and it makes it hard. It was a game of mistakes and turnovers, and you'd think with as many as we got to go our way, we would have done better. But we didn't."

USC 28, ASU 0
Did you see that? What has happened to Mr. Automatic? ASU kicker Thomas Weber has not been the same since his overtime field-goal attempt was blocked by Nevada-Las Vegas. The 2007 Lou Groza Award winner is 1-for-4 in the last three games, and two low kicks on Saturday were blocked by USC defensive lineman Fili Moala.

Thumbs up: Linebacker Mike Nixon does not possess tremendous athletic ability, but he almost never misses an assignment and, for the second straight game, he snuffed out a screen pass with an interception.

Thumbs down: The offense. Quarterback Rudy Carpenter explains what went wrong: “Everything. Nothing went well.”

Injury report: Tight end Dan Knapp injured the medial collateral ligament in his right knee in the first half and watched the rest of the game on crutches. Guard Paul Fanaika left in the fourth quarter with an apparent right knee injury. Long snapper Thomas Ohmart hurt his left arm on a third-quarter punt but returned after sitting out a field-goal attempt (snapped by linebacker Travis Goethel).

Quotable: “We can turn this around by taking this coming week off (and) using the bye to get some rest. But we’ll come out and practice hard. Practicing hard, that’s about all we can do.” — ASU safety Troy Nolan

UP NEXT: OREGON AT ARIZONA STATE
When: Oct. 25, time TBD  

Where: Sun Devil Stadium  

Records: Oregon 5-2 overall, 3-1 Pac-10; ASU 2-4, 1-2

Oregon this week: The Ducks hosted UCLA on Saturday night.

Outlook: Oregon will be a bigger challenge if quarterback Justin Roper is recovered from his knee injury. The Sun Devils will have little margin for error on defense if their offense continues to perform at its current level of ineptitude.