Osweiler: ‘We would like to go faster’

Arizona State offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone wants his guys to play fast – take the snap and go, much like a fast break in basketball.

In the season opener Thursday night against UC Davis, the Sun Devils ran 72 plays – one below their per game average of a year ago. Of course, they still gained more than 500 yards and almost scored 50 against the Aggies.

“We were snapping the ball with [an average of] 16 seconds left on the play clock,” explained quarterback Brock Osweiler. “We kind of view that as just being ‘okay’. We would like to go faster.”

Osweiler was fast to find receivers. He threw and completed passes to twelve different players with another four players touching the football via the handoff.

“I really can’t say enough about those guys,” said Osweiler. “And I can’t pick out one or two guys to talk about because we do have so many playmakers. It’s just a credit to all the wide receivers, all the running backs for working extremely hard in the off-season to be in a position where every single one of them can be in the rotation and is prepared to be in the rotation.”

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injury update:
OL Aderious Simmons is questionable for Friday’s game against Missouri because of an ankle sprain. “I don’t think he’ll play. He may be able to back-up,” according to head coach Dennis Erickson. “We’ll start (Dan) Knapp at right tackle and (Evan) Finkenberg at left tackle. Fortunately we have some depth there.”

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