The football game that had fans circling their calendars for months never lived up to the hype.

No. 3 Georgia’s potent offense certainly did. The Bulldogs proved too much for the Sun Devils to handle, topping ASU on Saturday, 27-10.

The crowd of 72,955 at Sun Devil Stadium saw a home team that was simply overmatched.

Expectations were high for the Sun Devils (2-2, 1-0 Pac-10) heading into the season, but ASU’s ascension to the college football elite has been put on hold.

Saturday’s loss to an SEC team only cemented that belief.

Led by sophomore running back Knowshon Moreno’s 149 yards and two touchdowns on 23 carries, the Bulldogs dominated the ground game.

“He’s an acrobat,” said ASU senior safety Troy Nolan, attempting to describe Moreno’s athleticism.

Moreno leaped from the 5-yard line over two defenders to score UGA’s first touchdown of the game.

On offense, the ASU running game was a polar opposite, mustering only four net yards.

“You can’t finish drives unless you can run the ball,” coach Dennis Erickson said. “We’ve got a bye week and we’ve got to figure out how to balance things and run the ball.”

The Sun Devils were without senior running back Keegan Herring, who missed his third game of the season with a lingering hamstring injury.

The Sun Devils were also unable to take advantage of UGA’s miscues.

The Bulldogs committed 12 penalties for 104 yards, but ASU was unable to convert those mistakes into scoring opportunities.

In the second quarter, sophomore kicker Thomas Weber connected on a 49-yard field goal, but, after a 15-yard roughing-the-kicker penalty against the Bulldogs, the Sun Devils had a chance to continue the drive.

The UGA defense kept ASU out of the end zone again, though, and the Sun Devils had to settle for a 25-yard Weber field goal.

“Obviously that was a momentum changer,” Erickson said. “Had we gotten it in the end zone, it might have made [the game] a little different.”

After the Sun Devils failed to score a touchdown, UGA drove the ball down the field on a 5-play, 70-yard drive and scored a touchdown to go up 21-3, squelching any chance of upset.

Junior quarterback Matthew Stafford found freshman wide receiver A.J. Green for a 14-yard touchdown.

Green finished with eight catches for 159 yards and the touchdown.

On offense, the Sun Devils failed to make plays when they had opportunities to close the gap.

“We’ve got to find a way to just make some big plays,” senior quarterback Rudy Carpenter said. “Until we do that, we aren’t going to be able to beat these teams.”

ASU’s lone touchdown came in the second half at the end of a 9-play, 71-yard drive that concluded with a 6-yard scoring toss from Carpenter to senior tight end Andrew Pettes.

The Sun Devils could not score again.

Carpenter finished the game, completing 23 of 36 passes for 208 yards and one touchdown.

The Sun Devils now head into a needed or dreaded bye week. That depends on how you look at it.

“We’ve got to find ourselves,” said senior safety Troy Nolan. “We have no identity right now.”

Erickson said the bye week will be a time to re-evaluate personnel.

“We’ve got to put some positions up for grabs,” Erickson said.

“We’ve got to get better. We’ve got to look at some guys on the offensive front and some other guys on both sides of the football.”

The Sun Devils’ schedule does not get any easier.

After the bye week ASU will face a road test in Cal on Oct. 4 and will then play No. 1 USC in Los Angeles on Oct. 11.

“We’re going to sit back and take it in and put it all behind us,” Nolan said.

“[We’re going to] get out there and work harder, practice and just find ourselves. We have the Pac-10 coming up and that’s what really counts.”

Reach the reporter at nkosmide@asu.edu.