Arizona State junior quarterback Brock Osweiler looked like Vince Chase as he strolled into the press conference room with a posse following the Sun Devils’ 43-22 victory over No. 23 USC.
Rather than walking up to the podium alone, he invited the starting offensive line — a star-studded cast featuring Dan Knapp, Andrew Sampson, Garth Gerhart, Mike Marcisz and Evan Finkenberg — along for the ride.
“So what do you guys think about my new Entourage?” Osweiler said.
The only thing missing was the red carpet.
Though their names aren’t the most popular, the cast proved to play arguably the biggest role Saturday in front of a primetime national audience, bouncing back from its performance against Illinois.
“I just thought that the media was pretty harsh on these guys and everything after last week,” Osweiler said. “They came out and they’re the real reason why we won this football game.”
The root of the criticism was from the six sacks allowed by the offensive line against the Fighting Illini, compared to only one sack given up in the first two games, and five penalties for 45 yards, nearly half the team’s total.
The offensive line returned to its old form as only a sack was recorded to a Trojan defense that had 27 sacks in three games, giving Osweiler the time he needed to breakdown the Trojans’ defense. Osweiler finished the game 25-of-32, 223 yards and two touchdowns.
And as far as penalties go, the lingering issue during head coach Dennis Erickson’s tenure in Tempe was a laughing matter after the game.
The offensive line had the same amount of penalties as Erickson. One.
“We had six penalties, but one of them was on me for running down the sidelines at the end,” Erickson said. “So I’m undisciplined, not them.”
“I had no penalties tonight,” joked Sampson, who had three of the five penalties last week.
Not only was there a dramatic change in pass protection and penalties, the offensive line helped established a running attack on the first possession.
In unorthodox fashion for a pass-first offense, the Sun Devils first drive consisted of four plays, all runs. It ended on junior running back Cameron Marshall’s first carry of the game, who didn’t start the game because of a sprained ankle he injured last week.
Marshall took it 70 yards for a touchdown thanks to a key block by Marcisz on Trojans sophomore defensive back Torin Harris allowing Marshall to bounce to the outside down the sidelines.
“We know what we’re capable of,” Marcisz said. “We ran the ball like crazy today.”
Marshall had 141 of the team’s 169 rushing yards and three touchdowns, easing doubts about the injury. Marshall said he couldn’t have asked for anything more from the offensive line.
“We really sat down this week and kind of talked about how we got to get this running game going. The past couple of games haven’t been good, as we wanted it to be. This was just a great way to get it going.”
Will the offensive line have an encore against Oregon State? We’ll have to tune in next week and find out, but for now, the offense is making sure the limelight is on the guys up front.
