Arizona State has the nations most deviously designed stadium. It is no joke, the stadium is designed so that during afternoon games the away crowd will have the sun in their eyes for the duration of the game. To be honest, I have no idea if the choice to have the sun set into the eyes of the away fans was deliberate or accidental, but either way it is a fantastic design. Nothing else I have been to was half as infuriating.
Unfortunately for the Sun Devils on Saturday, the setting sun was just about their best defense against the dominant Ducks.
This game wasn’t particularly close at any point. Being in the stadium, sun in my eyes, I can’t say whether the announcers were bored, but the crowd sure was.
Not the home crowd of course, there truthfully weren’t that many ASU fans in attendance after the first half. I elected to purchase tickets outside of the visitors section, not because I didn’t want to sit with Oregon fans, but because I like good seats. Fortunately, three sections away from the designated away section, there were basically only Ducks fans in the stands.
Gary Bryant Jr. reasserted himself as a major weapon against ASU. (Photo by Vasco Dixon)
Bo Nix had a quiet game, accounting for only 404 passing yards and six touchdowns. Nothing too flashy. The starting defense held the Sun Devils to three points before they were pulled, presumably for performing so poorly.
Obviously the comments above aren’t serious. Nix probably secured himself as a Heisman Trophy finalist today, and the defense did their thing against a pretty bad offensive unit.
Oregon was going to score as many points in this one as they felt like scoring, and luckily for Arizona State fans, the Ducks only felt like scoring 49. Nix could have thrown for 800 yards and 12 touchdowns, but he was pulled in the third quarter.
The singular struggle on the day was for the rushing offense, that netted only 140 yards. There were several negative plays where the offensive line appeared to miss an assignment, but overall it didn’t seem like the running game was unsuccessful, just not really needed.
Ty Thompson got extended run against ASU on Saturday. (Photo by Vasco Dixon)
The performance brings up some major questions for the remainder of the season:
- Does ASU deliberately make the away fans sit with the sun in their eyes?
- How on Earth did this team lose to UW?
I already addressed the first question, but as for the second…
UW scored ZERO offensive touchdowns against ASU, and won on a late interception returned for a touchdown. It was a sad performance for a pretty good team. How in the world did an Oregon team capable of scoring at will fail to beat a Washington team that looks a little less impressive every week that goes by? It is truly baffling that Oregon rebounded from the loss to look borderline unstoppable in almost every game since, while the Huskies lose a little more respect nationally every time they take the field.
Overall, a dominant performance by the Ducks puts them in prime position to move up in the CFP rankings should they win their remaining games. The playoff looms larger than ever and yet it feels like the Ducks might just be able to get there.
Ryan Robertson
Sierra Vista, Arizona
Top Photo by: Vasco Dixon
Ryan Robertson is a defense contractor for the United States Marine Corps. A lifelong Duck fan from Grants Pass, he joined the Army out of high school. After four years as an Intelligence Analyst he decided it was time to further his education and pay more attention to his Ducks. One of Ryan’s first memories is of watching the Ducks, led by Joey Harrington, beating up on the Utah Utes in 2001. His grandfather ran track at Oregon in the ‘50s. He loves the Ducks, and has a passionate interest in reading every scrap of analysis centered around the football team.