TEMPE, Ariz. -- As Arizona State hits the halfway mark of college football season, the Sun Devils remain a bit of a mystery.
Are they the team that suffered an embarrassing home blowout to UCLA? Or are they the gritty team that went blow for blow with USC on the road and won on a last-second Hail Mary? We might be about to find out.
Against No. 23 Stanford on Saturday, the No. 17 Sun Devils have the chance to make a statement about their status in the Pac-12.
Win and the Sun Devils (4-1, 2-1 Pac-12) look like true contenders, perhaps the new front-runner in the Pac-12 South. Lose and they're back on the hard road in the division race, though still in it with the rest of the South so unpredictable.
"It's a statement game," ASU quarterback Mike Bercovici said. "We know this is the team that took it away from us last year. So for us personally and to show this conference we're real contenders this year, it's going to be exciting to see the outcome Saturday night."
This much we know about ASU: The offense can rack up yards and points, but the defense remains a major work in progress. That combination makes for an intriguing matchup with the Cardinal.
Stanford (4-2, 2-1) owns the nation's No. 1 scoring defense, allowing 10.0 points per game. It also has the No. 2 total defense in the country, giving up just 238.0 yards per game.
"We know what we're up against," Bercovici said. "Nothing's going to come easy. Every yard is going to be earned. They don't give up cheap ones."
No. 17 ASU vs. No. 23 STANFORD
When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday
Where: Sun Devil Stadium
TV: ESPN (Mark Jones, Rod Gilmore)
Radio: Arizona Sports 98.7 FM (Tim Healey, Jeff Van Raaphorst)
Vaunted as Stanford's defense is, though, it's yet to face a team ranked in top 30 nationally in scoring. ASU, with 41.2 points per game ranks 13th in the country in scoring and third in the Pac-12.
Bercovici will lead the offense again this week as he makes his third start in place of Taylor Kelly, though coach Todd Graham says Kelly could play for the first time since injuring his right foot Sept. 13.
Against USC, the Bercovici-led Sun Devils put up 541 yards. Against UCLA it racked up 626. The offense may not be as dynamic as when Kelly runs the zone read and makes plays with his legs, but it should give Stanford's defense its toughest test yet.
Stanford's offense, meanwhile, has been its downfall in losses to USC and Notre Dame. With an average of 26.3 points per game, the Cardinal offense ranks last in the Pac-12. Its 389.3 yards per game are second to last. Stanford's red zone offense, at a 67.9 percent clip, is the Pac-12's worst.
But Stanford showed offensive improvement in a 34-17 win over Washington State last week, and against ASU's inexperienced defense it could hit its stride. ASU ranks 10th in the Pac-12 in total defense, allowing 452.6 yards per game. Stanford's pro style offense presents a unique challenge, something ASU had extra time to prepare for during the bye week.
"They're so different," ASU defensive coordinator Keith Patterson said. "What they've done by just playing old school football, per se, they've made themselves unique because very few people do it anymore. So that's one challenge. You've been built to defend spread offenses, now you've got to completely shift gears."
Still, Stanford hasn't built its reputation as a Pac-12 powerhouse on offense. It's done so on defense and, to a lesser degree, special teams.
"We know what to expect," Graham said. "There's probably not even been a story on it, but they have the best special teams in the conference, and that had a lot to do with them winning it. Obviously their defense -- the best scoring defense in the conference is going to win the conference."
The Sun Devils certainly should know what to expect after facing Stanford twice last season, both ending as a loss. Though much of the personnel is different on both sides, ASU knows plenty well the brand of football Stanford plays and what it must do to overcome it.
While Graham admitted this week losing to Stanford in the Pac-12 title game "hurt a lot," he also said losing to the Cardinal twice made ASU respect them even more. Graham has regularly used Stanford as a measuring stick by which to gauge his own program, and while Saturday's outcome may not determine ASU's ultimate fate in the Pac-12 it should provide a better look at who the Sun Devils truly are this season.
"There's no team we respect more than the two-time defending champion," Graham said. "You're going to have to go out and have twice as much intensity, twice as much discipline, twice as much effort and precision to beat these guys."
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