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At one point last night, I honestly thought I'd be writing this article, hanging my head over my laptop, recapping how Arizona State joined the ranks of Michigan State, Ohio State, Michigan and Stanford in Club "What Could Have Been." Yet after CTG gave his men hell at halftime, ASU burst out the locker room, looking like the dominant team from the first quarter. Their first FBS test of the 2014 season, here's your ICYMI recap of ASU's trip to the ABQ.
- I'd call last night a tale of two halves. New Mexico kept pace through the first 30 minutes, with the score 32-21. And then halftime happened, with 19 unanswered points until the Lobos returned the blocked PAT for a score. When we play, we dominate. When we take our foot off the gas though...
- In DJ Foster's last three games (Holiday Bowl, Weber State and last night), he has broken his career best for rushing yards, capping that three game stretch off with 216 yards last night on 19 carries. Just in case you were wondering, he already has 363 yards on this campaign. I mean I don't wanna say it was easy to forget Grice... but...
- On the running back rotation situation, it looks like Deantre Lewis spells Foster occasionally at tailback, while Richards and Ballage split carries at running back. DJ doesn't come off the field very often, hence the random cameos from Deantre.
- Even when Jaelen is relatively quiet, he still finds a way to impress. In his one big play of the night, he high-pointed and out jumped two Lobo defensive backs to snag the jump ball touchdown. With teams game planning around him, he's gonna have some quieter games, but he still needs to make his presence felt, like he did on that grab.
- No Jaelen? No problem. Cam Smith racked up 4 grabs for 77 yards and DJ snagged 3 tosses for 54. It's good to see we have enough talent elsewhere on the roster that we don't have to solely rely on Strong in the passing game.
- On a low note, CTG did not get the better special teams play he demanded in the preseason. After a nice swinging gate 2 point conversion, Matt Haack shanked a 20 yard punt, Zane missed an easy FG, and two PATs were blocked (one returned for two the other way).
- You did have to like us up by multiple touchdowns, breaking out the Taylor Kelly fake pooch punt play. Just so brazen, bold and unnecessary, it's impossible not to respect.
- What scares me about this football team is how willing they are to kick it into auto-pilot when they have a lead. Up 22-0 with 4:12 to go in the first, ASU hemorrhaged points until it was 29-21. I know it was New Mexico and they corrected it after halftime, but great teams play great from beginning to end. We took the second quarter off.
- Oh, how about Lamar Jordan? Coming on for New Mexico after starting QB Mitchem's second drive, he roared this team back before half, running AND throwing the ball well. With that kid at the helm, the future is bright in the ABQ.
- Our no-huddle came back to bite us, as New Mexico killed clock and kept our defense on the field way more than we were ready for. If we're gonna run no-huddle, our defense needs to be prepared for long drives with little rest afterwards. There was little too much cramping for my liking.
- Props to all the ASU fans who made the long trek to the ABQ. You were loud all night long, with my personal favorite, being the guy who screamed, "Cheater," so well, it came over crystal clear on the ref's mic. Good work people.