Devils prove no match for Oregon in 48-13 rout

The bright sunshine and triple-digit temperatures on Saturday prevented the leaden sky and bitter cold, all that was missing to complete the gloomy postgame atmosphere at Sun Devil Stadium.

Failing to even mount a challenge in a conference game it had to have, the home team slumbered off the field in a near-empty facility, its once-lethal offense with no punch, its quarterback dazed and confused, the wheels on the season threatening to come off.

A melodramatic assessment, perhaps. But after Arizona State’s 48-13 loss to Oregon — which coach Dirk Koetter called the second-worst game of his life — it is awfully difficult to claim that it is inaccurate.

“I want to apologize to our fans for having to watch that,” Koetter said. “We should pay them to sit through that.”

There was no doubt that the black cloud was hovering in the interview room afterward. If a blowout defeat at California a week ago was the left jab, this was the right cross.

“A lot of the guys were carrying last week’s loss over their heads,” wide receiver Rudy Burgess said.

ASU players bemoaned their mystifying lack of urgency in an important game, blasted the team’s recent practice performance and wondered what happened to a defense that showed so much early season promise and a once-potent offense that was the program’s identity.

“We came out flat, and I’m still wondering what in the heck happened,” middle linebacker Beau Manutai said. “There was no energy from anyone, including myself.. . . We really have to make some changes to get our act together and play consistently.”

A bye week comes at a perfect time for the Sun Devils (3-2 overall, 0-2 Pac-10), but waiting on the other end is an Oct. 14 contest at three-time defending conference champion Southern California.

“The reality going into the bye week is that we are a team that needs to get a lot better,” Koetter said.

The Sun Devils did not score a touchdown on offense. Quarterback Rudy Carpenter completed just six passes for 33 yards.

That is not a misprint. Thirty-three measly yards by Carpenter, who after last week’s struggles at California and vowed that his mental approach and mechanics would improve. Neither did on Saturday.

“Hey, I’m just trying to complete a pass, and I haven’t been able to do it,” Carpenter said. “I made a promise that it wouldn’t happen again. I guess I can’t make that promise anymore.”

It was unclear where Saturday’s passing yardage ranks among the worst totals in school history, as an ASU official said that complete information was not readily available.

The lowest figure in Koetter’s six-plus seasons with the Sun Devils is 120 yards against Central Florida in 2002.

“Rudy is trying to guess right now,” Koetter said. “He’s trying to make stuff up that isn’t there. When he does have something there, or we don’t protect him, well, that causes more problems.”

Carpenter’s erratic play has been the highest-profile part of a unit-wide meltdown in the passing game. Linemen are missing blocks. Receivers are not running crisp patterns.

Before the season, the annual doubts about whether ASU could run the ball engulfed the offense. Now — after 113 more rushing yards from Ryan Torain against Oregon — the running game is the offense.

“In football, it takes all 11 players (on the field),” Carpenter said. “If you have one breakdown, the play is ruined, in most cases. Every play for us, someone messes up.. . .

“It doesn’t matter whose fault it is. We’re not going to point any fingers. We can’t. All we can do is go back to practice and get it fixed. Until we do that, this will be the result.”

No. 14 Oregon (4-0, 2-0) exploited the Sun Devils with its spread offense, needing little in the way of tricks to move the ball downfield.

Running back Jonathan Stewart rushed for 142 yards, and wide receiver Jaison Williams had 10 catches for 137 yards and two scores. Most of Williams’ yardage came on bubble screen passes that the Sun Devils never solved, and Ducks players broke tackles aplenty.

The average length of Oregon’s six TD drives: 76 yards.

“Overall, the effort of our team was lackluster,” safety Zach Catanese said. “We missed tackles and made a lot of mistakes. When you have as many things go wrong as we did out there, there’s no way that you can expect a positive result.”