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Arizona State Sun Devils @ Oregon State Beavers Football Preview

For a game that matches two teams with two losses apiece, it's strange but true: The feeling in the respective locker rooms of the Arizona State Sun Devils and Oregon State Beavers couldn't be more different.

For Arizona State, the 2010 season is already a depressing and oh-so-familiar journey through heartache. Coach Dennis Erickson - who used to coach at Oregon State and led the Beavers to a glorious conquest of Notre Dame in the 2001 Fiesta Bowl - has not been able to replicate his magic in the Desert Southwest. ASU, a program known for falling short under previous head coaches, has retained its unfortunate identity under a coach who won two national titles at Miami in addition to his Fiesta Bowl triumph with Oregon State. The Sun Devils labored through terrible 2008 and 2009 seasons, so they hoped to turn things around in 2010.

They came close, but of course, in true ASU fashion, they didn't turn the trick. A wrenching one-point loss at Wisconsin on Sept. 18 - thanks to a blocked PAT with 4:09 left in regulation - gave the Devils one of the gut punches they're so used to absorbing. Then, however, the high-flying Oregon Ducks came to town on Sept. 25. That game gave ASU an opportunity to score a huge conference win and restore its prospects for the season. The Wisconsin loss was able to be forgotten when a big dog in the Pac-10 - the defending league champion, no less - paid a visit to the 100-degree heat of the Grand Canyon State. When ASU reeled off a series of rapid-fire touchdowns to take a 24-14 lead over Oregon in the second quarter, it seemed that ASU was on the verge of something special.

Then the Devils - in keeping with their snake-bitten profile - imploded. A fumble at the Oregon 2 ruined a brilliant drive at the start of the second half. ASU lost momentum and then fell behind by a 42-24 tally when another fumble was returned for a touchdown by the Ducks. Defeat seemed all but certain.

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In a sense, it was, but in another sense, it certainly wasn't. The strange world of Arizona State football can't be easily summed up.

The Devils - though down 18 - continued to fight, and a touchdown late in the third quarter pulled them within 11 points, at 42-31. Suddenly, ASU received a fresh injection of momentum, and on three separate occasions in the final 13 minutes of play, ASU drove inside the Oregon 40, with two of those drives penetrating the UO red zone. A normal person would think that in a shootout, those drives - at least two of them - would have ended in touchdowns, enabling Erickson's athletes to push Oregon to the limit.

Naturally, that was not the case. ASU - on a night when it accumulated 597 yards of total offense - punted once inside the UO 40 and then got intercepted twice in the red zone, as quarterback Steven Threet - who smoked the Ducks' secondary for much of the evening - made too many bad decisions in crucial spots. ASU did so many things well against Oregon, but all the Devils had to show for their ballsy and bold play was an 11-point defeat. That's why 2-2 feels terrible for the team that will travel to Oregon State this Saturday.

On the other hand, the home team for this confrontation in Corvallis, Oregon, can't feel too bad about the two losses it has suffered so far in 2010. Oregon State hasn't dropped a conference game the way Arizona State has, for one thing. Moreover, the Beavers haven't been forced to endure a blocked PAT or the seven turnovers ASU has experienced in its stomach-churning setbacks. No, for coach Mike Riley's OSU crew, the simple fact of the matter is that it scheduled very ambitiously and played two games away from home against superior opponents. The TCU team that beat Oregon State on Sept. 4 in Dallas is a legitimate top-10 team in college football. The Boise State team that dusted off OSU this past weekend is a legit top-five club. Oregon State has learned how some of the big boys get the job done in college football, and now - armed with valuable training thanks to TCU and Boise - the Beavers can start their Pac-10 campaign with a considerable amount of optimism. They should be able to turn back ASU on the home turf of Reser Stadium.

Two teams, two losses each, but two very different mindsets. It's up to Arizona State to overcome a September of negativity. If the Sun Devils can't recover on an emotional level from the Wisconsin-Oregon trail of tears, they won't be able to put up much of a fight against an Oregon State squad that is as battle-tested as any team in the country.

By Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer