By James Romo for DieHardDevil.com

Demons were exorcised, a losing streak in California was broken, and a pitchfork was firmly planted in the turf at the remodeled Memorial Stadium last Saturday afternoon.  The Sun Devils were able to maintain focus, discipline, and a business-like approach going into their second conference game to achieve an important victory heading into the bye week.  Cal has a roster loaded with talent that has been ranked near the top of the conference recruiting classes over the last several years, but all the talent in the world couldn’t overcome a series of mental errors and facing a determined and hungry ASU team on the other sideline.  Let’s take a closer look…

Sun Devil Offense

ASU came out looking to keep the Cal defense off balance with a series of runs, play-action passes, and routes into the soft spots of the defense that were created by linebackers intent on stuffing the running game.  In a somewhat breakout game, Cameron Marshall ran 17 times for 69 yards for just over a 4 yards per carry average.  That is more touches and yards per carry than he’s had in any game to this point in the season.  Marion Grice ran the ball 10 times for 47 yards, with much of that gained on tough second effort after defenders could not bring him down on first contact.  Although the running game is beginning to pick up steam, it is still not at a level that will allow ASU to primarily ride their stable of backs to a win or clock killing drive.  But on a beautiful day in the Bay Area on Saturday, the run game was instrumental enough in opening up the underneath routes between the Cal linebackers and secondary.  DJ Foster, Chris Coyle, Jamal Miles, Kevin Ozier, and Rashad Ross were recipients of a ton of space with which to work.  Foster, in particular, had a field day running seam routes in front of the secondary and was a couple of shoelace tackles away from huge gains or scores.  Reserve tight end Darwin Rogers caught his first pass as a Sun Devil for a one yard touchdown to open the scoring and a 7-0 lead.  After an impressive camp, the athletic Rogers was expected to be a big weapon going into the season.  But after watching some of his other reps on Saturday, it became evident why he hasn’t seen more game action.  He was beaten badly by a defensive end who was able to get pressure on Kelly forcing an errant throw on third down, essentially killing a drive.  Once he becomes more of a complete player at the position, the Sun Devils will surely have a killer 1-2 punch at tight end.  Another big accomplishment was for the second week in a row, the ASU offense was able to avoid committing a turnover.  However, at least two passes by Kelly could have easily been picked off, and Cameron Marshall fumble and a bad snap were both recovered by ASU.  The Sun Devils also owned the time of possession battle 35:41 to 24:19.

The receiving core looks to be finding its proverbial legs as the season progresses.  Speedy Rashad Ross and strong possession receiver Kevin Ozier provided targets for Kelly both down field and on underneath routes.  It appears as though Ross’ case of the drops have been all but cured.  Once he improves his field awareness, his speed and ability to stretch the field are going to be huge weapons against tougher secondaries in games to come.  Foster releasing from the slot position will continue to be a match-up nightmare for opposing defenses, but if Miles and Richard Smith can be more active in complimenting the vertical game, this offense will be extremely difficult to defend.  Miles had three grabs for 41 yards, and his route running is improving.  Ross led the team with 84 yards on 7 catches.

Kelly finished with 292 yards passing and three touchdowns on 26-45 attempts.  It is undeniably clear that his poise and athletic ability is what won him the starting nod, and ultimately what allows this offense to sustain drives.  Kelly also continues to be so cool and collected when facing adversity or when scrambling to make plays.  When he wasn’t dissecting the Cal defense with pinpoint throws outside of the pocket, he tucked it and ran 10 times for 35 yards.  He also showed off some surprising arm strength with a strong throw into traffic, hitting Ozier at the goal line for a 17-7 lead.  On the final scoring drive of the game, Kelly worked his magic again on the run. He read an inside linebacker break coverage in order stop him, and was able to pull up and hit Ozier again for a 22 yard catch and run for a touchdown, essentially putting the game away. Credit goes to Ozier for his tough running after the catch to score.  Kelly has undeniably become the official leader of the new Sun Devil offense.

Sun Devils on Defense

The Sun Devil Defense continues their trend of disrupting the opposing offense by getting into the backfield and causing all sorts of havoc.  To put it into perspective, ASU had 14 tackles for a loss on Saturday and rank second in the nation with an average of 9.8 per game.  They also sacked Cal quarterback Zach Maynard seven times bringing their total to 20 for the season.  That’s good enough for 4.2 sacks per game and a #5 ranking in the country.  Will Sutton is an absolute beast and was named Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Week.  So far, there hasn’t been an interior lineman who can neutralize him in a one-on-one situation.  He made his way into the backfield untouched a number of times.  That type of quickness is unheard of for a defensive tackle.  He finished the game with eight total tackles, including four for a loss and two sacks.  I’m not sure what else he could have done to warrant being double-teamed, but Cal never made that adjustment, and quarterback Zach Maynard paid dearly for it all day.  Junior Onyeali, Chris Young, and Davon Coleman also created a ton of pressure off the edges, combining with Sutton and Carl Bradford in giving the Cal backfield headaches for all four quarters.  Bradford finished his productive day with six tackles and a sack.  He was caught in the wrong gap on one play giving up a long run, but was assignment sound throughout the game.  Enough can’t be said of Brandon Magee this season.  Although he isn’t the flashiest player, he is an absolute menace on defense making plays in the backfield (one sack), stuffing the run, and running down receivers after the catch.  His football IQ is off the charts as he seems to be in the right place at the right time every play.  Chris Young does an exceptional job of disguising coverages and maintaining outside contain finishing the day with five tackles. The Sun Devil defense combined for five tackles for loss in the first quarter alone, setting the tone for what was going to be a long day for Cal coaching staff and players.

Junior Will Sutton was named the Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Week for his performance against Cal.

The ASU secondary was solid overall despite giving up a few big plays.  Keelan Johnson made at least one touchdown saving tackle by running down Isi Sofele after a 23 yard gain.  Johnson ended up with nine tackles (tied for the team lead) which is not a statistic you generally want your free safety to have.  He wasn’t nearly as technically sound with his tackling this week, but he made his presence felt again this week with at least big time hits.  Osahon Irabor was solid in coverage and probably should have had at least one interception.  Deveron Carr was also solid in coverage, but committed a pass interference penalty that saved a touchdown.  Alden Darby contributed four tackles and recovered a fumble caused by Magee.  The defense only gave up 126 yards passing, which may be a bit misleading as Cal abandoned their early success with the short passing game behind the ASU linebackers, and Zach Maynard was horribly inaccurate throwing to several open receivers.  The frustrated Maynard only connected on 9-28 attempts and was seen visibly upset on the sideline with the amount of pressure he was under all game.

ASU Special Teams

Josh Hubner was excellent in his punting, giving Cal an average field position of their own 19-yard line.  He had punts of 62 and 61 yards, both pinning Cal inside their 20 yard line.  Taylor Kelly also had a pooch punt that was aided by a holding penalty that jammed the Bears on their own 4 yard line.  The score indicates a much closer game than what really transpired.  39-17 sounds like a more accurate score, but the kicking woes continue for Alex Garoutte.  He converted on only 2-5 attempts, all from inside of 40 yards.  One kick was blocked by a Cal defender that can’t be blamed on Garoutte.  However, ASU is heading into the toughest part of their schedule and will undoubtedly be in close games week in and week out battling the top teams in the conference.  The coaching staff will have to make it a priority to find a more reliable replacement sooner rather than later.  Outside of the field goal attempts, ASU played a very complete game, but they were aided by a series of Cal mental mistakes and penalties.  The Bears finished with twelve penalties for 119 yards compared to ASU, who committed one penalty for 15 yards.  We have seen through the first five contests the impact that discipline can have on the outcome of a game.

Here’s what we know to this point in the season…The 2012 Sun Devils have sent a message to the rest of the conference that they are for real.  The team that was flying under the radar and picked to finish last in the division will now have the proverbial target on their back and have the rest of the conference gunning for them.  Sun Devil Nation has seen what this team is capable of, and expectations are through the roof right now.  After the bye week, ASU heads to Boulder for what should be a very winnable game against a struggling Colorado program.  Then a huge opportunity presents itself back home in Tempe for a “blackout” game against the Oregon Ducks on ESPN.  However, the Sun Devils need to take care of Colorado first and there is no doubt that Coach Graham and the ASU coaching staff will have the team prepared and ready to go for their trip to Boulder.