ASU Vs. Oregon: Sun Devils fans remain optimistic despite bad loss

The Arizona St. Sun Devils had a lot riding on Thursday night's game against Oregon. The team was 5-1, organized a "Blackout" from their fans, and had the chance to shoot into the national polls with a win. Unfortunately for the ASU faithful, the game was essentially over midway through the second quarter as the Ducks made quick work of the Devils' defense.

While it was a frustrating night in Tempe, SB Nation's ASU blog, House of Sparky, reminds us it was just one game and that there is plenty of season left.

As badly as Thursday night's loss to Oregon hurt, it doesn't knock Arizona State from the the lead position of the Pac-12 South. As awful as the Sun Devils were in getting blitzkrieged over the game's first 20 minutes, it doesn't undo all the tremendous progress the program has made over the last few months.

"We have a good football team and it's just one game. So we go to next week," coach Todd Graham said. "This next week is a big, big game in the South and even with a poor showing tonight, we're still in first place. We have to go to work and UCLA is the next one up and we have to figure out how to win that one."

Arizona State has already received good news, as starting defensive lineman Will Sutton did not suffer a season-ending knee injury, and instead will be treated on a week-to-week basis. They will need him healthy moving forward, because the schedule does not get any easier; a game with UCLA looms next weekend, and that's followed by road trips to No. 8 Oregon State and No. 10 USC.

Add in the annual rivalry game with Arizona to end the season and we will truly get to see what this team is made of in the coming weeks.