As ASU invented yet another way to lose a close game last Saturday, a 34-33 defeat to USC to extend its Trojan losing streak to 11 games, it seemed as though it all unraveled from a single loose thread.
While each breakdown in special teams can be seen as an independent error, it is curious that the Sun Devils had their worst special teams performance of the year in a game in which they missed their most consistent special teams performer.
The Sun Devils suspended senior punter Trevor Hankins for violating teams rules before Saturday’s contest. Hankins was third in the country in punting average coming into the contest.
As a result, redshirt senior kicker Thomas Weber was forced to punt and sophomore quarterback Brock Osweiler was asked to hold for Weber on field goal and extra point kicks.
Weber only averaged 31 yards per punt, more than 16 yards less than what Hankins averaged coming into the contest. Weber also had a punt blocked in the second quarter, but the Sun Devils held on the ensuing USC drive when junior safety Clint Floyd intercepted quarterback Matt Barkley in the end zone.
Its unclear whether the extra punting duty for Weber, or the absence of his normal holder Hankins, had any adverse effects on his final field goal attempt, which was missed from 42 yards out and ultimately cost the Sun Devils a chance at victory.
ASU coach Dennis Erickson said, “Again, when you change holders and different things like that it has a little bit of an effect, but he just missed the kick actually.”
Weber has missed seven of 17 field goal attempts on the season, including four misses in five attempts from 40-49 yards.
Since making 24 of 25 field goal attempts as a freshman in 2007, the year he won the Lou Groza Award for the nation’s best kicker, Weber has made just 37 of 55 kicks, and only four of 15 from 40-49 yards.
Despite the tailspin, Erickson is going to stick with Weber and hopes he breaks out of the prolonged slump.
“The guy has been kicking here for four years and he isn’t having a good year,” Erickson said. “To take him out of it right now would be insane. We are going to stay with Thomas and hopefully he will make some and that’s what we are looking to have happen. Obviously he is not going to blame anybody.”
Weber’s misses aren’t the only shocking pattern of play from the special teams. For the second time this season, ASU had an extra point-blocked in the fourth quarter of a close game on the road, one that could ultimately be pinned as a prime explanation for defeat.
This time, however, the blocked kick resulted in a two-point conversion for the opponent as USC freshman Torin Harris returned the blocked ball into the end zone.
The bizarre three-point swing was the result of another missed blocking assignment. In ASU’s one-point loss to Wisconsin in September, the unblocked player came off the edge, but this time the missed block came from the interior of the line.
“It’s ridiculous,” Erickson said. “It’s about accountability. We kicked the ball a lot of times in that game and blocked it perfectly every time, then a guy isn’t accountable on what he is supposed to do and flat misses a guy and that’s what happened, and that’s what happened to us at Wisconsin. It’s accountability to do your job every time, regardless of whether you’re playing 3 plays or playing 70 plays.”
Erickson said the mistake was not due to poor schematics.
“Obviously we didn’t block it correctly,” Erickson said. “It wasn’t any magic thing that they did. We’ve been doing it the whole game, our guard went down, dropped his head and the guy came right over the top off him.”
The Sun Devils also had two other glaring errors on special teams, one that could have swung the contest when an USC punt was inexplicably touched by ASU sophomore receiver Jamal Miles, jumping and tipping the live ball, only for junior cornerback Omar Bolden to recover.
The other mistake was made by freshman running back Kyle Middlebrooks on a kick return, when Middlebrooks opted to catch a ball that was headed out of bounds at the 11-yard line, gaining three yards before stepping out.
Had he let the ball land out of bounds, the Sun Devils would have started at the 35-yard line because of a kick-off out of bounds penalty. The miscue resulted in a net loss of 21 yards.
It wasn’t all negatives for the Sun Devils' special teams, however, as senior cornerback LeQuan Lewis returned a kickoff 100 yards, the second straight week he’s made a significant impact.
USC’s special teams weren’t all that much more effective, as kicker Joe Houston missed field goals from 35 and 27 yards out.
Reach the reporter at nick.ruland@asu.edu
