Who would have thought that ASU, who was picked to finished ninth in the Pac-10, would hold an undefeated record in conference play and be ranked in the top 25 in the nation?
After a solid win against Washington on Saturday night, ASU now holds a 7-2 record overall with a 4-0 mark in the Pac-10. It's the first time ASU has been undefeated in four Pac-10 games since 1996. The reason they found themselves here after Saturday's game is the amount of pressure they were able to place on Washington junior quarterback Cody Pickett.
"We didn't give him [Pickett] time to make the passes and that was key," ASU senior linebacker Solomon Bates said.
Pickett who leads the Pac-10 in passing yards with an average of 371.6 yards per game racked up only 210 yards Saturday night. Through the first three quarters, Pickett had passed for a scarce 70 yards.
"We knew they were going to [throw] it in the air a lot tonight," Bates added. "We were just trying to mess Pickett up and force him to make a lot of bad passes. We put a lot of pressure on receivers tonight and were able to come up with the sacks," Bates said.
Sacks were indeed plentiful. ASU had 8 sacks totalling 67 yards in losses. A number of Sun Devils had a hand in the assault. The most impressive player of the night was junior defensive end Terrell Suggs who entered the game with 13 sacks and needed just 4.5 to tie the NCAA record.
That's exactly what he got.
"The reason I got there tonight was because the rest of the defensive line played outstanding," Suggs said.
Bates added that he was able to return an interception for 22 yards in the first quarter because of the pressure Suggs placed on Pickett.
Washington's top receiver, sophomore Reggie Williams, who has averaged 112.7 yards per game, was held to 68. Pickett's Huskies weren't able to make a fourth-down conversion on two tries and capitalized on only five of their 16 third-down conversions.
"I think number one, we were able to put great pressure on Cody Pickett with a four man rush. We didn't have to blitz as much as some other games and of course Terrell [Suggs] had a huge night," ASU head coach Dirk Koetter said.
Washington's two touchdowns in the final five minutes made the score a respectable 27-16 margin. Washington could only muster a field goal up to that point.
"It says a lot that you can win it in more than one way. We've kind of staggered them the last weeks; offensive, defense, offense, defense and I think that says you have a pretty decent football team," Koetter said.
Thanks to the defense ASU was able to garner another victory, jumping the team to No. 17 in the ESPN/ USA Today coaches' poll and No. 16 in Associated Press poll.
Reach the reporter at katie.crane@asu.edu.
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