Struggles for the Devils

 Thursday night Fox Sports One game. Huge crowd. Black out for the fans. Back up quarterback for the Devils. The Devils had everything going in their favor before the game started except that last reason listed. UCLA was in town with their own injured quarterback, Brett Hundley. However, Hundley was going to play.




After the first quarter, the game belonged to the UCLA Bruins. The Bruins made the Sun Devils one dimensional and their defense pinned their ears back to rush the Devils back up quarterback Mike Bercovici. Bercovici ends up throwing a interception while the Devils were on the verge of scoring. That score was a total momentum swing for the Devils, the defensive back for the Bruins returns the ball 95 yards for a pick 6 touchdown. As soon as that happened, in my head I said "ballgame." By the end of third quarter the game was out of control and it was "garbage time" for the Devil players. Jaelen Strong for ASU had about 160 yards, but a lot of that was when the game was already decided.


The Sun Devils need their starting quarterback Taylor Kelley back leading the offense. Not having him there will hurt this teams chances at winning another Pac-12 South Division title. He provides another dimension for the Devils. Kelley makes plays with his feet and can throw the ball down field. Defensive coordinators game plan for his dual threat activity. He makes Jaelen Strong and DJ Foster much better. Defenses will focus on stopping those two guys and once that happens the Devils are dead in the water. Mike Bercovici does not scare anybody in terms of being a threat. Yes, he has a strong arm, but he doesn't move around like Taylor Kelley does. A less mobile quarterback is obviously a lot more easy to defend. Defensive lines can just pin their ears back and get after the quarterback in that type of situation.




With Kelley out for the next few weeks the struggles will continue. For Devil fans, his return can't happen soon enough. With Stanford coming to town for the next home game, do Devil fans really want Mike Bercovici trying to beat the Cardinal? I think not. Taylor Kelley needs to heal up and get back in his Sun Devil uniform soon or this season for the Devils could be destroyed. Just saying...