The Arizona State Sun Devils of the Pac-10
Conference and the Georgia Bulldogs of the SEC are set to collide in Athens on
Saturday night.
Arizona State has beaten two inferior non-league opponents to open the 2009
campaign, so the team is undoubtedly eager to test itself against top-notch
competition. Last weekend, the Sun Devils rolled to a 38-14 decision over UL-
Monroe. After this weekend's game, ASU dives into a full slate of Pac-10 games
under the guidance of head coach Dennis Erickson.
"That'll be a great experience for our players to go down to the South and
play," said Erickson of this weekend's affair. "It's really special. I know
our players are excited about getting down there."
As for Georgia, it survived a shootout in Fayetteville last weekend, knocking
off Arkansas by a 52-41 final. The Bulldogs are now 2-1 overall, and they are
a perfect 2-0 in SEC play. The lone loss came on the road against Oklahoma
State in the season opener, but the club has been much better offensively
since that shaky showing.
The Sun Devils and Bulldogs met for the first time last season, and Georgia
won that game in Tempe by a 27-10 final.
Arizona State's offense didn't light it up against UL-Monroe last week, as the
Sun Devils finished with 15 first downs and 338 total yards. They averaged
just 3.5 yards per rushing attempt, a rather low figure, but the fact that
they didn't commit a single turnover was impressive. Senior signal caller
Danny Sullivan connected on 19-of-31 passes for 220 yards and a touchdown, and
he also had a rushing score. Kyle Williams led all ASU receivers with eight
catches for 129 yards, and Dimitri Nance rushed for two touchdowns.
Defensively, Arizona State permitted a mere 262 total yards to UL-Monroe. The
Sun Devils came up with a pair of interceptions and posted a fumble recovery
as well, and those takeaways were key to the victory.
One negative to point out from the ULM game is that ASU committed a high
volume of penalties, and Erickson was not happy with the miscues.
"Too many penalties," said the coach. "That's ridiculous. I'll have to look at
the tape tomorrow and see where they all were, how they were created and all
that stuff, but that's disappointing. In a close football game when you have
those kind of penalties, that's when you can get beat."
Through two outings, Sullivan has completed 57.1 percent of his passes, and
while he has only one touchdown pass to his credit, he has yet to throw an
interception. Nance has three rushing scores, Williams has made 13 catches,
and the offense has moved the ball with balance. The leaders of the defense
have been Brandon Magee, who has 3.5 TFLs, and Mike Nixon, who has intercepted
three passes.
The Sun Devils will be without standout kicker Thomas Weber for the next month
or so due to a torn tendon in the groin area of his kicking leg. Weber was
nearly perfect on FGs last season (24-of-25) en route to winning Lou Groza
Award. Freshman Bobby Wenzig is expected to handle the kicking duties in
Weber's absence.
Georgia is averaging 34.3 ppg through two outings, and the team is posting a
respectable 365.0 total yards of offense per tilt. Joe Cox has taken over at
quarterback for Matthew Stafford, who was the top pick in the most recent NFL
Draft. While not nearly as physically gifted as Stafford, Cox has connected on
63.3 percent of his passes for 738 yards and eight touchdowns with three
interceptions. A.J. Green, the team's star receiver, has 17 catches for 275
yards and three touchdowns, while Richard Samuel paces the ground attack with
256 rushing yards and two scores.
Last weekend, the Bulldogs simply couldn't be stopped en route to 530 yards
and 52 points against Arkansas. Cox connected on 18-of-25 passes for 375 yards
with five touchdowns and only one interception. Samuel ran for 104 yards and a
touchdown, and Green hauled in seven balls for 137 yards and two scores.
"Watching film we knew we could exploit them offensively with the deep pass,"
said flanker Michael Moore. "We went out and made plays."
The fact that Georgia is surrendering 34.0 ppg and 406.3 total ypg suggests
that there is a ton of room for improvement on the defensive side of the ball.
The Bulldogs have been solid against the run, yielding only 3.6 ypc, but the
pass defense has been poor, permitting opposing quarterbacks to average 285.3
ypg and 13.6 yards per completion. There have only been two takeaways and four
sacks registered by the 'Dawgs in 12 quarters of football.
Arkansas finished with 41 points and 485 total yards against Georgia, which
simply cannot be proud of its defensive effort in that tilt. The Bulldogs were
strong against the run, permitting just 77 yards, but they were victimized for
408 passing yards, a disappointing figure by any standards. Georgia did a good
job on third downs, as Arkansas was only able to make good on 3-of-14
conversion attempts, but the overall showing was poor.
"We have a long way to go," said Rennie Curran, Georgia's standout linebacker.
"We can't continue to give teams the long balls and think we're going to win
big games."
©2009 Sports Network. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
