ASU Football: Sun Devil defense set for litmus test against high-flying Oregon offense

(Photo: Brady Klain/WCSN)

For Danny Gonzales and the Arizona State defense, the 2018 season has been all about growth.

In this first season with Gonzales as the defensive coordinator in Tempe, he’s been trying to get his players, an eclectic mix of uber-talented freshmen with a number of talented upperclassmen, and a redshirt senior who spent the last four years on offense, to buy in to the culture of not only the 3-3-5 defense, but the type of smash-mouth football that Herm Edwards wants ASU to be known for.

In the penultimate game of the season for the Sun Devils, with three more contests remaining if things go the way they plan, the growth of Gonzales’ defense has been leading to the game this Saturday against the high-flying Oregon Ducks offense, led by quarterback Justin Herbert.

“[Herbert] throws the ball really well in the pocket,” Gonzales said. “He’s not afraid, he’s got great feet, he can run. He’s smart with his decisions, if he thinks he’s going to get hit from two angles he’ll slide and make defenders run into each other… he’s potentially the first pick in the NFL Draft this year if he comes out.”

“They run a different type of scheme then we’ve seen recently,” cornerback Chase Lucas said. “We just got to play good coverage in the secondary, we got to be communicating at all times with each other.”

While Gonzales stated that some of the biggest areas for improvement were on him and his coaching staff preparing their players for their opponent, after giving up 439 yards of offense against UCLA, one player in particular looking for a bounce-back week is redshirt freshman defensive lineman Tyler Johnson.

Despite recording two tackles for loss, two sacks, and a forced fumble against UCLA, Johnson was not happy with his overall performance.

“Certain plays that we repped all week, I did them the right way in practice, but when it translates to the game I wasn’t doing exactly what I should’ve been doing,” Johnson said. “Obviously everyone sees all the good plays and stuff like that… but throughout my mind toward the end of the game it was just like, ‘We’re going to win this game but I played awful.’”

Ahead of the matchup against Oregon, Johnson knows that the defensive unit as a whole will have their work cut out for them.

“What stands out to me is probably mainly their ability to pass the ball,” Johnson said. “Everyone on the team has athleticism, they have numerous amounts of plays that can work on run defense and pass defense, so it’s very important this week that we focus on certain things, narrow it down, and make sure we do everything right.”

One area of concern for the Sun Devils will be the first 30 minutes in Autzen Stadium where they will be without the services of freshman linebacker Merlin Robertson.

After being ejected for a targeting penalty against UCLA quarterback Wilton Speight early in the second half last Saturday, Robertson must sit out the first half against the Ducks per NCAA rules.

“We have to make sure when the next guy comes in, it’s not a big deal,” Gonzales said. “Don’t try to do something special… we had enough guys play early on in the year that we have enough guys with experience to come and fill in for him. It shouldn’t be that much of a drastic drop-off.”

With each passing week, the Sun Devils goal of reaching the Pac-12 championship game and perhaps beyond becomes more and more tangible, but for Gonzales and his defense, the mindset is still one play at a time.

Kickoff from Autzen Stadium is set for 8:30 PM MST on Saturday night.

Bobby Kraus is a football beat writer for the Walter Cronkite Sports Network. You can follow him on Twitter @bobbykraus22