Arizona State's victory against UCLA in the Rose Bowl proved that the Sun Devils are not ready to be buried in the Pac-12 South race, and also that the odd Pac-12 road team trend is alive and well in 2015.
Todd Graham's group was the seventh road team to win in the first eight Pac-12 conference games of 2015. Last season, road teams finished the year 33-21 in Pac-12 games. At some point, someone in the Pac-12 South will start winning games at home and claim a spot in the Pac-12 title game. For now, we enjoy the parity and competitiveness of a wide-open race between USC, UCLA, Arizona State, Utah and Arizona.
Arizona State was on the verge of getting eliminated from that list before this win, but finally found something on offense and rolled up 465 yards of offense on the Bruins after a slow start for both teams. Mike Bercovici finally broke through with a couple of touchdown drives in the third quarter thanks to good field position, but the game was won up front by the Sun Devils' defense.
UCLA running back Paul Perkins was held to just 63 yards on 18 carries and the Bruins finished 3-of-14 on third down. Josh Rosen dealt with relentless pressure from the Sun Devils in third-and-long situations, and would have finished with even more pedestrian numbers (22-of-40 passing for 280 yards, one touchdown, one interception) if not for a few big plays.
Under Jim Mora, UCLA has followed the recent Pac-12 trend of being better on the road than at home. But if the Bruins are going to win the Pac-12, as so many thought they would as recently as yesterday, they've got to win these division games no matter where the contest is played.
