ASU senior quarterback Rudy Carpenter was off of his crutches Monday, but he had a visible limp and his status for the Sun Devil football team’s game at No. 8 USC Saturday still remains up in the air.

Carpenter suffered a sprain in the back of his left ankle during a scramble early in the fourth quarter in ASU’s 24-14 loss at Cal on Saturday.

ASU (2-3, 1-1 Pac-10), losers of three straight, could be without the quarterback who has made 36 consecutive starts.

“I’m not going to put him out on the field unless he has the mobility to be able to move and throw,” ASU coach Dennis Erickson said at his weekly press conference Monday. “He’s got to be pretty close to 100 percent. We won’t know anything about that until time goes on, so it’s really kind of a point that really doesn’t even need to be discussed until we see how he progresses the next three days.”

Carpenter said he first noticed the injury when he took his shoe off after the game Saturday. He added that his ankle has been feeling a bit better each day since.

“I was a little worried about it and feared the worst [after the game Saturday],” he said. “I’m just kind of staying hopeful that it continues to stay on that track and gets better every day so I can play on Saturday.”

Carpenter said he was unsure if he would be able to practice Tuesday.

“As long as I can walk, then I can play,” he said. “Realistically, we’ll have to take it day-by-day during the week in practice.”

If Carpenter can’t play Saturday, junior Danny Sullivan will make his first career start against the Trojans.

Erickson said both Sullivan and Carpenter will be included in the Sun Devils’ game plan and that Sullivan will be up to the task if needed.

“[Sullivan is] pretty physical. He’s big and he has a very strong arm,” Erickson said. “But probably more than anything, he really understands. He studies as much as any backup quarterback I have ever been around.”

The 6-foot-5-inch Sullivan has appeared sparingly in 18 games in his career. Redshirt freshman Samson Szakacsy is third in line at the position.

Defensive play growing ever more important

Erickson said he was pleased with his team’s defense in the Cal game, that is, after it allowed 17 straight points before halftime.

“[After] that point, defensively, we played probably as well as I’ve had a defense play since I’ve been here,” he said. “We ran to the football, played very physical, very aggressive. We gave the offense opportunities in the fourth quarter to get back in and possibly win the game.”

Erickson also said ASU must rely on the defense to create “opportunities to win games” because of the offense’s recent woes.

Carpenter said that the inability to make big plays on first and second down has been the biggest issue for the ASU offense.

In the Pac-10 Conference, the Sun Devils are seventh in scoring (23 points per game) and last in rushing offense (85 yards per game).

Carpenter can’t take the blame for all of that, but taking the heat is something he said he’s used to.

“I’ve been beat up enough in the last three years that I’ve been here physically and all the other [stuff] that goes on, so I feel like I’ve got thick skin,” he said. “It’s like water off a duck’s back for me. I’ll just take it. I don’t have any problem shouldering responsibility for whatever happens.”

Despite the three-game losing streak, an injured signal-caller and arguably the season’s toughest road game just days away, Erickson said he remains optimistic.

“The biggest thing that we’ve got to do as a football team is get better every week,” he said. ”There’s a lot of positive things that can happen to us. The worst thing you can do is panic.”

Reach the reporter at gina.mizell@asu.edu.