ASU football notebook: Carpenter finds success against blitzes

Compared to the last three weeks — when Arizona State allowed 17 quarterback sacks — Saturday night’s contest against Washington was heaven in a passing pocket for Rudy Carpenter.

SLIDESHOW: View photos from the game.

Torain, Jones injured; ASU leading Pac-10

Nance, Herring keep ASU running

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The Sun Devils gave up four sacks against a Huskies team that did not bring the kitchen sink as often as their previous two opponents, Stanford and Washington State. Early in the game, UW blitzed more often than usual but appeared to revert to its bend-but-don’t break philosophy as the contest progressed.

In the days before the game, coach Dennis Erickson acknowledged that a likely pass-rush assault from the opposition is a current reality for his offense.

“If they blitz you 70 times a game, they are going to get you a few times,” Erickson said. “That’s just the nature of blitzing teams. But the minus is giving up big plays. We’ve got to protect the (passer), but we have to make teams pay for blitzing us.

“We have to get the big play. You start getting the big play, and those guys will back off.”

When Carpenter was pressured on Saturday, he managed to throw the ball away or scramble with much more success than in recent weeks.

“It’s something we’re all working on,” Carpenter said. “It’s all of us as a unit giving us more time to throw, whether throwing the ball away or running quick routes. We got blitzed a lot tonight, but we hit big plays. That’s the best thing we can keep doing.”

BODY SACRIFICE

Already without running back Ryan Torain and receiver Mike Jones, ASU had another injury scare on the last play from scrimmage in the first half. Carpenter scrambled to his right and was hit hard by two Washington defenders near the goal line, vaulting his body into the air.

The QB fell hard out of bounds and laid down for a few moments, but got up.

“I told the guys to sell their bodies this week, because we had a bye week to rest up,” Carpenter said. “I felt I needed to practice what I preached.”

The officials ruled that the first-half time expired on the play, but after a review, determined that Carpenter stepped out of bounds at the 7-yard line with a second remaining. Thomas Weber kicked a field goal to cut UW’s lead to 17-13.

RADIO CHATTER

Cornerback Justin Tryon created a mini-stir in the Northwest on Thursday by telling a Seattle radio station that the Sun Devils aimed to take UW quarterback Jake Locker out of the game.

Or did he?

The senior acknowledged that ASU wanted to hit Locker often, but the words “take him out of the game” were spoken by KJR-AM host Dave Mahler, not Tryon. Audio of the interview does not clarify if Tryon believed the phrase meant neutralizing Locker or removing him.

“He scrambles and is fast,” Tryon told KJR. “He’s the fastest quarterback I’ve seen on film. We’ve got to contain him in the box and on each play, we have to hit him. If we do that, it will be an easy win, hopefully.”

EXTRA POINTS

ASU had its first in-season recruiting visits on Saturday, and among those visiting was Jack Elway, quarterback at Cherry Creek High School in Englewood, Colo. He is the son of NFL Hall of Famer John Elway, who accompanied his son and was on the field before the game. …

The Sun Devils’ first drive of the game culminated in a field goal and lasted 16 plays, the most since an Oct. 19, 2002, game at Oregon. ASU had a 16-play march to a field goal en route to a 45-42 upset of the sixth-ranked Ducks. …

Members of the 1957 Dan Devine-coached squad that finished 10-0 were honored during a halftime ceremony.