Paus Not Offering Any Excuses

Cory Paus, his ego now bruised as much as his chest muscles, accepted full blame for his poor showing at Arizona State and said the painful injury that kept him from throwing for a week and then limited his practice time last week had nothing to do with it.

The thought of it, however, might have had something to do with it.

“Maybe because I couldn’t get it out of my mind,” Paus said of the injury that cost him the Stanford game and cut into his usual schedule leading up to Arizona State. “But I got hit a couple times early and I was bothered by it subconsciously.

“My body felt fine, my arm felt fine. I think it was just my unconscious. I think I was thinking about it maybe.”

In the first full game of his college career, the redshirt freshman--who split time with Drew Bennett the first two games and was knocked out of his third--completed only 10 of his first 24 passes and finished 15 for 40 for 235 yards, two interceptions and one touchdown. One interception came with 6:26 remaining as UCLA was trying to protect a 24-21 lead, one of the several second-half blows that resulted in a 28-27 loss.

“I played horribly,” said Paus, who was wrapped in bandages, extra padding and tape but did not wear a flak jacket. “I had guys open here, guys open there, and I didn’t hit them.