TEMPE, Ariz. -- Watching Arizona State for most of its 36-26 loss to Oregon State on Saturday, it was not hard to tell that things weren't working very well on either side of the ball, and coach Todd Graham admitted Monday to a poor offensive gameplan.
"We didn't get it done. We didn't play very well offensively," Graham said in his weekly press conference. "Obviously that starts with our plan."
ASU actually got off to a good start offensively, tallying 126 yards in the first quarter, including 59 rushing yards against a defense allowing an average of 83.4 yards per game on the ground. Even into the second quarter, ASU's tempo gave Oregon State trouble, but the Beavers finally adjusted and came back to tie the score at 19-19 before halftime.
"We felt like going into halftime we were sitting good," Graham said. "We just could not do anything offensively in the second half. You've got to give their defense a lot of credit for that."
Graham went on to call the offense "inept" in the second half. Part of the problem, perhaps, was the limited impact of star running backs D.J. Foster and Marion Grice. Grice caught six passes for 43 yards and touchdown, but the score came with just 22 seconds left in the game, and he rushed only four times for 15 yards. Foster rushed five times for 22 yards and had two receptions for nine yards.
The backs' limited involvement was not by design, Graham said, and ultimately came back to the inadequate offensive plan as well as Oregon State's sound defense.
"We're trying to get the ball to our best players' hands as often as we can," Graham said. "D.J. and Marion, it wasn't anything they did. ... Obviously, our plan wasn't very good and we didn't get the ball to them the way they needed to."
ASU also tried to get senior receiver Jamal Miles more involved than in any other game this season, particularly with screen passes that gave him room to run, a staple of ASU's previous offense. Miles had a season-high five catches but just 29 yards.
NOT SO SPECIAL
Graham said Monday he believed ASU had won the special-teams battle in the seven games prior to the Oregon State loss, which made Saturday's performance particularly disappointing.
"I thought we played bad special teams-wise," Graham said. "Our kickoff cover was not very good. Our kickoff return was not very good. Our punt cover was not very good."
ASU ranks 10th in the Pac-12 and 83rd nationally with an average of 7.13 yards on punt returns but ranks fourth in the conference with a 24-yard kickoff return average. ASU's kickoff coverage ranks sixth in the conference.
The Sun Devils gave up 125 return yards against Oregon State, and placekicker Jon Mora missed a 37-yard field-goal attempt that would have brought ASU to within a touchdown of Oregon State in the third quarter. Graham called the miss "critical" in a Monday radio interview.
There was one exception, however, to ASU's special-teams struggle Saturday: Senior punter Josh Hubner averaged 47.2 yards per punt on eight kicks. Three of those put Oregon State inside its own 20-yard line.
"Our punter was absolutely exceptional," Graham said. "He's, no question in my mind, the best punter in the country. He has done a phenomenal job (and) been a weapon for us. An absolute weapon."
Hubner is averaging 47.42 yards per punt this season, which ranks third in the nation but tops among punters playing for BCS-conference schools. So, in one sense, Graham's claim is accurate.
STILL IN IT
Saturday's game was seen as a must-win in terms of ASU's shot at winning the Pac-12 South and playing in the conference title game. But the Sun Devils still have a pulse within the division, albeit a weak one.
At 4-2, UCLA is in the driver's seat in the Pac-12 South. USC is next at 4-3 followed by ASU at 3-3. A win over USC this weekend would bump ASU into second place, still trailing UCLA even if the Bruins lose to Washington State (UCLA could fall to 4-3 but holds the tiebreaker over ASU). The Bruins don't seem likely to lose to the Cougars but face tougher tests closing out the season, with the last two games against USC and Stanford.
Ultimately, ASU's shot at the South is complicated, but Graham says his team will fight until it's out of the race.
"We have not, in no way, given up our focus and our goals on wanting to be a champion," Graham said. "We've just got to win a game. That's our focus, to go win a game."
ASU has now posted regular-season losing streaks of at least three games in five straight seasons. A win at the Coliseum would prevent a fourth regular-season losing streak of four or more games in five seasons.
"We just need to get a win back in that win column," Graham said. "We are still competing for this thing. It's far from over, and we're going to fight and scratch all the way down to the end."
NOTES
-- Graham said on the radio Monday that junior defensive end Junior Onyeali sat out an entire quarter because of his roughing-the-passer penalty in the second quarter, which kept an Oregon State drive alive and allowed the Beavers to tie the score with a field goal before halftime. It was the second straight week a roughing-the-passer penalty by Onyeali kept an opponent's drive alive and led to points.
-- Graham, also on the radio, addressing defensive tackle Will Sutton's return from a bone bruise: "I thought he showed unbelievable toughness to play when he wasn't ready to play."
