ASU football still lacks pressure from the front four

(Photo: ASU athletics)

It has become cliche to talk about Arizona State’s defense replacing nine starters and starting three true freshmen. But that is the reality. Head coach Todd Graham is not accepting youth as an excuse for the defense’s mistakes. The Sun Devils want to win championships now. Which means, the defense needs to grow up now.

Last season, the Sun Devils set the defensive bar at a height that may take the current unit all season to reach. The base for their success in 2013 was a dominant defensive front, led by All-American Will Sutton.

The combination of Sutton, Carl Bradford and Davon Coleman was a nightmare for offensive lines. The trio combined for 24.5 sacks and 54.5 tackles for loss. Even if none of them made a tackle, they still had a noticeable impact on the play, forcing the quarterback to move off his launch point or the running back to change directions or the offensive line to block them leaving someone else free.

But that was last season. Sutton, Bradford and Coleman are gone. And it has been obvious in the first three games.

The Sun Devils are 3-0 and have looked great at times on defense. Other times, they’ve shown their inexperience and struggled. Head coach Todd Graham and defensive ends coach Paul Randolph have expressed frustration over the defense’s lack of pressure, especially on passing downs.

The Sun Devils have six sacks in three games — only three from the defensive line and devil backer. According to Randolph, the aim is to get five to eight sacks per game and have most of the pressure applied by the front four.

Against Colorado on Saturday night, the Sun Devils had to blitz with five or six or even seven men to get pressure. The defensive front was stymied most of the game by the Buffaloes’ offensive line, both inside and on the edge.

On plays the Sun Devils only rushed four, Colorado quarterback Sefo Liufau had time to scan the field and deliver the ball to his receivers, and the running backs were able to find lanes easily.

Twice, running back Christian Powell lined up as a fullback and ran straight up the middle for gains of 55 and 42 yards. It was a play that should not have been hard for the Sun Devils to defend, even if it did catch them off-guard. However, the defensive front was swallowed up by the offensive line, allowing blockers to get downfield and Powell to run through untouched.

The Buffaloes rushed for 232 yards and averaged over six yards per carry after being held to under 160 yards rushing and four yards per carry in each of their first two games. If not for three Colorado turnovers, ASU could have easily lost the game.

Going forward into conference play, the Sun Devils are going to need to do a better job up front on defense.

Obviously, that is easier said than done however, in order to compete in the Pac-12, in order to compete for championships, in order to use the motto, “We don’t rebuild. We reload,” eventually guys have to step up and make plays, which they have not done consistently.

Youth and inexperience can only be used as an excuse for so much for so long. When D.J. Foster, the running back, has more tackles (1) on the season than the starting defensive tackle Tashon Smallwood (0), there is something wrong that needs to be addressed. The defensive line has done a good job taking up blocks, allowing free rushers from the linebacking corps or secondary, but, as Randolph said, ASU wants the line to create pressure on its own.

The devil backer is another position that needs a drastic improvement in production. The Sun Devils have used a three-man rotation of Antonio Longino, Edmond Boateng and two-way player De’Marieya Nelson, which seems like a good idea but might be hurting more than helping.

The devil backer is a key position on defense and Graham and the coaches have had a tough choice of who to play there full-time. Each player has a different skill set that will allow them to succeed, however, splitting reps and playing time might be affecting their ability to fully grasp the position and all its intricacies.

Boateng started the first two games but overall Longino has put up the best numbers of the three. Against Colorado, Longino got his first start and responded with 10 tackles, two for losses, a sack and a pass break-up. As the schedule gets tougher for the Sun Devils, they will need that kind of production, plus more pressure on the quarterback from whoever is playing devil backer. The sooner they name a full-time starter, the sooner they can get consistent production out of this position.

Fortunately, the Sun Devils have some time with an upcoming bye week before playing UCLA at home. The Bruins have run the ball well this season but their offensive line has struggled in pass protection. Quarterback Brett Hundley may miss the game due to an injury sustained against Texas on Saturday.

Even if Hundley does not play, UCLA will present the biggest challenge so far for the young ASU defense especially if linebacker Laiu Moeakiola misses the game after being injured against Colorado.

If the Sun Devils hope to reach their goal of winning the Pac-12 and playing for a national championship, the defensive front has to step up and take control the line of scrimmage. That’s what championship teams do.