TEMPE, Ariz. -- Despite throwing a career-high five touchdown passes in No. 25 Arizona State's win, Rudy Carpenter sounded like the losing quarterback afterward.

"Tonight, I missed some reads and I tried to run a little bit sometimes,'' said Carpenter, who completed 17 of 26 passes for 333 yards in a 52-21 victory over Nevada Saturday night. "It's just the way it goes sometimes.''

Carpenter, a sophomore, made his second start since coach Dirk Koetter demoted his preseason No. 1 quarterback, Sam Keller, who transferred to Nebraska. Carpenter's lone blemish was an interception that was returned for a touchdown. He improved to 6-1 as a starting quarterback.

Carpenter's big night took the pressure off the Sun Devils' ground game, which has come under criticism and didn't begin clicking until long after the outcome was decided.

Arizona State (2-0) came into the game hoping to establish a running game against Nevada (0-2, with its next start Saturday at home against Colorado State), which allowed 212 rushing yards in its opening loss to Fresno State. But the Sun Devils struggled to run the ball against an undersized Wolf Pack front line.

In the first half, ASU's four tailbacks -- Keegan Herring, Shaun DeWitty, Dimitri Nance and Ryan Torain -- combined for 30 yards on 12 carries. ASU finished with 139 yards on 31 carries, a 4.5-yards-per-carry average that matched last week's performance against Division I-AA Northern Arizona.

Torain ran for a team-high 70 yards on eight carries, including a 15-yard score late in the fourth quarter.

Coach Dirk Koetter said his game plan called for ASU to run the ball more, but he shifted gears after the game started and the Wolf Pack bunched to stop the run.

"They changed their defense up and challenged us to throw it more,'' Koetter said.

"I thought Arizona State had a nice game plan defensively,'' Nevada coach Chris Ault said. "But we did not respond offensively the way that we should have. Offensively speaking, we were really ineffective.''

The Sun Devils may need a consistent running attack when they visit Pac-10 contender California on Sept. 23. But a ground game was incidental on a night that Carpenter picked apart the Wolf Pack.

His first touchdown pass, a two-yarder to tight end Zach Miller, capped ASU's game-opening 11-play, 80-yard scoring drive. It was Miller's 100th career reception and his 11th career touchdown reception, tying Joe Petty for the lead among ASU tight ends.

Nevada tied it at 7-7 when linebacker Ezra Butler intercepted a Carpenter pass and returned it 23 yards for a touchdown with 13:54 to go in the second quarter. Carpenter rebounded to lead a 10-play, 80-yard drive, hitting Michael Jones for a 20-yard touchdown to give ASU a 14-7 lead.

Arizona State took a 24-7 lead on Carpenter's third touchdown pass, a 52-yarder to Nate Kimbrough. The score ended a lightning 80-yard, 28-second drive, with Carpenter completing three passes in as many attempts.