By Doug Flanagan
State Press
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BERKELEY, Calif. -- With 12:22 left in the fourth quarter of Saturday's game at Cal, ASU tailback Delvon Flowers burst through a hole on the left side, cut back toward the middle of the field and eventually weaved his way into the end zone.
That touchdown gave ASU a 23-14 lead, with the extra point to come. Placekicker Stephen Baker took his place on the field to boot the ball through the uprights, but when the ball was snapped, Cal redshirt freshman Tully Bantu-Cain bulldozed his way over ASU's right guard and got a hand on the low kick, thus denying ASU its 24th point.
The Sun Devils lost 24-23.
On the surface, it might seem easy to blame ASU's come-from-ahead loss on that one play. But upon further examinination, it is revealed that the Sun Devils suffered through execution and assignment errors -- some glaring, some subtle -- all game.
"I think it would be underrating them to say we gave it to them," ASU head coach Bruce Snyder said. "But I do believe we helped."
The Sun Devils' woes came in three areas: special teams, blown defensive coverages, and turnovers.
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The Associated Press Cal quarterback Kyle Boller, right, is hit by ASU safety Alfred Williams as he throws during the second quarter Saturday in Berkeley, Cal. |
* Special teams. Besides the botched extra point, ASU had a 5-yard punt (off the foot of Nick Murphy at the beginnng of the second quarter, giving Cal the ball at ASU's 14-yard line); a missed 44-yard field goal attempt by Stephen Baker as time expired in the first half which Snyder attributed to miscommunication; and allowed 163 yards on kickoff and punt returns.
"Their special teams outperformed ours today," Snyder said. "Not only the specialists, but the returns and the coverages. That's where the biggest difference in our two teams today."
On the field goal at the end of the first half, Kealy drove the team from its own 20 to Cal's 27, with an 18-yard completion to Kendrick Bates setting up the potential field goal. With five seconds left, ASU tried to switch in the field goal unit by shuffling players on and off the field, and the result was a rushed atempt. Baker missed wide right.
"That's on me," Snyder said. "The prudent thing would have been to spike it."
* Blown coverages. The overall play of ASU's secondary was satisfactory, but senior cornerback Courtney Jackson got burned on a couple of critical plays. The most noticeable occurred at the end of the first half with Cal down 14-7. Two sacks and a delay of game penalty pushed the ball back to the ASU 49. With Bears starting at a third-and-30, Cal freshman quarterback Kyle Boller completed a pass to Michael Ainsworth, who was streaking down the right sideline past Jackson.
"That's ridiculous," ASU defensive coordinator Phil Snow said. "That should never happen."
The completion went for 31 yards and set up Cal's tying touchdown.
"Veterans should dominate their positions, whether it's Redmond or whoever it is," Snyder said. "Courtney Jackson is held to the same standard."
* Turnovers. ASU fumbled the ball five times and lost it twice. Kealy lost the handle on the center snap twice, once in the beginning of the second quarter and again at the end of the third quarter.
Offensive coordinator Dan Cozzetto said that the blundered exchanges had to do with new center Kenneth Williamson, making his first start in place of the injured Thomas Schmidt.
"With Kenny, there's always been issues about certain ways that he will move as far as the ball coming up," he said. "We've gotta be cautious about it, but he's gotta develop into a better center. The only people who can solve that are the center and the quarterback."
The fumbles ASU actually lost were deadlier -- with the Sun Devils up 14-7 in the second quarter, Kealy hit wideout Ryan Dennard, who turned up the right sideline. He was then hit by Cal cornerback Delthea O'Neal at the Cal 29, and he fumbled. Safety Dewey Hale recovered, and on the ensuing drive Cal tied the game at 14.
Then, with the game still tied at 14 in the third quarter, ASU drove the ball down to the Cal 3-yard line. Snyder decided to send in tailback J.R. Redmond, who had missed most of the period with a shoulder injury, and put him in the backfield with Davaren Hightower. Kealy handed the ball to Hightower, who then ran to the right in an option-type formation. He pitched it to Redmond, but he wasn't able to handle it, and Cal's LaShaun Ward recovered.
"In the course of a game -- let's say 80 snaps -- there will be 20 of them (where you) say 'I wish I had that back,'" Snyder said. "I wish I had that one back."
After the game, Snyder had no explanation for his team's lack of fundamental execution; rather, he said that it had a great last week of practice and had noticeably improved. "I'm hurt and I'm pained," he said, "but I'm not discouraged, because I see us really becoming a pretty good team."
Cornerback Craig Koontz, however, was in a different mood.
"They come out and scheme something that we don't prepare for right away. We made assignment errors," he said, head down. "It was just one of those games."
