First, I posted about how we were making so many mistakes (especially turnovers) but still were winning games. Then, I looked closer at how tough this is for our defense, which has been put in tough situations many times, ever game this season.
Things didn't change this night against Arizona State.
The defense looked sloppy in the first half, letting ASU's Nance run all over the place, but still, the Sun Devils were held to only 3 points until halfway through the 3rd quarter. The points are what matter most, and our D held strong.
Until our offense decided it was time for our 3 per game turnovers. One turnover was directly responsible for 7 points (the pick six) and one turnover ended up in an ASU touchdown. So there's 14 of their 17 points that were either directly or indirectly caused/affected by our turnovers.
And the defense played lights-out in the 2nd half (other than the one TD after a fumble in our territory).
We should/could have won this game comfortably, but those mistakes by our offense are going to hurt us sooner or later. We can't always get bailed out by the defense or special teams at the last minute.
It's really frustrating to see glimpses of how good this team can be, but then almost lose due to mistakes. First game, it was the offense that wasn't working well and had turnovers. Second and third games, the offense was amazing (but turnovers were bad), and the defense wasn't too hot. Fourth game? The offense was alright (but turnovers were terrible) and the defense was excellent. It may be asking for a lot to see all parts of the team work well in the same game, but can we at least quit the turnovers? I think that would help a lot to keep these heart-attack games from happening.
In conclusion: I'm glad we won. But please, please let us blow out some teams this year so us fans can relax.
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