Carpenter fizzles, Torain sizzles
The Good: Buried beneath the horrific final result of its 49-21 loss at Cal, the ASU football team had one of its finer games rushing the ball in recent memory. Junior college transfer Ryan Torain enjoyed a breakout performance, rushing for 191 yards on 24 carries. He emerged as the between-the-tackles running back ASU has yearned for since the departure of former New England Patriot J.R. Redmond after the 1999 season. Backups Shaun DeWitty, a sophomore, and Dimitri Nance, a freshman, were also effective. DeWitty ran for 27 yards on six carries and Nance gained 26 yards on seven carries.
The Bad: Quarterback Rudy Carpenter played by far the worst game of his career and one of the worst games by an ASU signal caller in years.
The sophomore threw 16 of 36 for 177 yards along with two touchdowns, four interceptions and lost a fumble. Carpenter very well could have had six picks on the day if not for a pair of drops by Cal defenders. He also had another fumble that Torain had the presence to pick up. With Carpenter calling the signals, ASU had no chance to win the game. Quarterbacks often get too much credit for wins and too much blame for losses, but Carpenter should absorb every one of the jabs he receives from this one. And we won't even mention Sam Keller ... oops.
The Ugly: With ASU trailing 28-7 in the second quarter, the Sun Devils needed something, anything to get fired up about to stop the bleeding.
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