TEMPE, Ariz. “”mdash; Receiver Tab Perry had his best game in
over two years on Saturday, but for him, it didn’t matter.
What mattered was that his team lost. With two touchdowns and 78
all-purpose yards on offense, Perry demonstrated the playmaking
ability that many had expected from him upon his return to the
team. But with the Bruins losing in catastrophic fashion, 48-42 to
Arizona State, those numbers weren’t important to Perry.
“I would rather have zero catches and have a win than have
however many catches and a loss,” he said. “It mutes
them out and takes away from them a bit.” Since rejoining the
team this summer after sitting out last season due to academic
ineligibility, Perry had yet to make a significant impact in the
Bruins’ offense. But with fellow receiver Craig Bragg forced
to sit out for the past three weeks with a separated shoulder,
Perry moved into the starting role again. But it wasn’t until
this weekend that he had his breakout game, even though Bragg was
back in the lineup for the first time. “It is like night and
day from three games ago,” Perry said. “For the first
couple of games when I was in, I wasn’t in for a lot of
passes, but when Craig went down, it really forced me to get more
involved.” And he was plenty involved in the offense on
Saturday. In a bizarre play in the third quarter, Perry scooped up
a Manuel White fumble in stride, and ran it in for a 12-yard
touchdown to tie the score at 28-28. Perry was the team’s
leading receiver with five catches for 66 yards. “Tab’s
been making progress in our offense,” offensive coordinator
Tom Cable said. “I guess you could say the transition is
over.”
CORNER CONCERNS: The questions regarding who
starts at cornerback alongside Matt Clark remain unanswered. The
subject drew even more attention Saturday when freshman Trey Brown
replaced first-year starter Marcus Cassel in the second quarter and
played the rest of the game. It was the first amount of significant
playing time for Brown this season. Last week against California,
Cassel was replaced by freshman Rodney Van, but this week Brown got
the nod instead. “He’s been a guy we’ve felt was
ready to play,” defensive coordinator Larry Kerr said.
“Sometimes you just, you are ready to pull the trigger with a
decision on a guy. We just felt it was time to give him a
chance.” But Brown’s results were mixed. He did have a
key interception with under a minute left in the first half that
directly led to a Justin Medlock field goal and was second on the
team with seven tackles Saturday. But Brown was also badly beaten
deep for a touchdown late in the fourth quarter by ASU’s
Derek Hagan that brought the Sun Devils within five points. In
fact, many were surprised to even see the freshman corner in during
the critical moments late in the game, even with his early
contributions. “Trey Brown did a nice job. He made an
interception and covered well,” Kerr said. “You get
that many opportunities with a quarterback like (ASU’s Andrew
Walter) and he’s going to eventually put one on the money,
and unfortunately for us the timing was bad. It’s tough when
you put that guy out there on an island.”
INJURY UPDATE: Safety Chris Horton sprained his
right ankle. He left the game and afterwards was on crutches.