I told people that this Sun Bowl game between Arizona State and Duke would be an entertaining game and I believe it lived up to that kind of billing. There were great things done by the Sun Devils, some horrible things done by the Devils, but in the end the only thing that matters is that Arizona State has more points on the board than the Duke Blue Devils.
This was a very good win for the Sun Devils because it gives them back to back 10 win seasons to build off of and gives them a good jump off point for the 2015 season. One of the points that I made earlier in the week was that the match up to watch was the Sun Devil defense and the Duke offense and that was what it came down to in the end. After the Sun Devils got up by 13 going into the third quarter, Duke rallied to take a lead late in the game and it looked like ASU wasn't going to be able to stop the Blue Devils from scoring every time they touched the ball in the fourth quarter. However, the lead the for Duke lasted only a few moments.
The ensuing kickoff was ran back by Kalen Ballage 96 yards to the Duke four yard line where the Arizona State scored and took the lead back 36-31. The ASU two point conversion try was no good. By no good, I mean a horrible play call and it failed miserably.
This is when the game got even more interesting. Duke took the ball and marched down the field to Sun Devil 14 and had a lot of momentum. It felt like Duke just may finish the comeback and score. A score would have just crushed the Devils and their emotions about this 2014 season. Instead, the Sun Devils defense made a play when they absolutely needed to. Duke goes to their best player, Jamison Crowder, and the ball was a bit underthrown by the quarterback. The underthrown ball was intercepted by the Devils defensive back, Kweishi Brown with 45 seconds left and that was the ballgame right there. The aspect of the game that I wondered about was if the ASU defense could make a stop when they needed to. They answered that question, it took most of the second half to do it, but they did it.
Now, it's onto the offseason and start wondering about the 2015 season. There are many positives that the Sun Devils will have when they return to practice for next season. They will have a good quarterback, with experience in Mike Bercovici. They will have an experienced offensive line and pretty much everybody coming back on the defensive side of the ball. All of that experience that the defense had this year will be invaluable for the program next year and it should show on the field. The question marks will be who replaces Jaelen Strong, their stud receiver and possibly who takes over for DJ Foster if he decides to leave early. The question for the Foster replacement may have been on display today as Demario Richard had four touchdowns for the Sun Devils, but there is a lot of talent in the ASU backfield, so Coach Graham will have some decisions to be made before the start of next season.
All in all, things in Sun Devil land are certainly looking up and very positive. Nothing to be ashamed of for the Devils for 2014. Forks up Sun Devil fans!
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