ASU Football: Utah Rewind

After taking a day to digest the ASU victory over Utah, there are some things to consider while taking a “rewind look” at the win.

The big story for this game is the ASU Defense.  Once again, for the third game in a row, this defense has shown that they are for real.  In the last three games, the defense has allowed only two touchdowns.  That’s a ridiculous turnaround from the beginning of the season where this same unit gave up 500 yards to lowly Colorado and surrendered 48 points to UCLA.  Nobody would have guessed that the ASU defense would be the strength of this team, especially having to replace 9 starters from last year’s PAC-12 South Championship team.  The defense allowed only 57 passing yards.  They did allow Utah running back Devontae Booker to grind out 146 yards rushing.  But they didn’t allow any of the big plays that gave coach Graham fits earlier in the season.

It’s difficult to truly put a finger on what has changed with the defense.  The personnel are obviously the same now as they were 5 weeks ago.  There has been some changes up front, as Mo Latu and Demetrius Cherry have established themselves as starters.  (Although Cherry didn’t play against Utah.  He was suspended for an undisclosed violation of team policy).  The return of Laiu Moeakiola at linebacker has been huge.  Apparently, Moeakiola is the communicator/director of that defense and is the only defender capable of doing that.  This allows the defense to audible or adjust to the offensive formation.

The only schematic change could be the implementation of a more traditional 4-3 look that ASU has employed recently.  It seems to fit the personnel better, allowing Laiu and Antonio Longino to flourish.  But coach Todd Graham still does a lot of different things on defense, bringing pressure from everywhere on the field.  Most likely, what is happening here, is that the ASU defensive players are just starting to figure things out.  They aren’t making critical errors and they are tackling better.  They look athletic and confident.

Ironically, however, it’s the ASU offense that looks out of sorts.  In the last three years, for the entire “Todd Graham Era”, the ASU offense has been the buzz of the program, having a quick strike, high octane, high tempo attack that routinely scores a whole lot of points.  Recently, that hasn’t been the case.  Credit the defense for Utah (and Stanford) in having a hand in the offensive productivity.  (and the wind in Washington).  Senior left tackle Jamil Douglas struggled in the second half to protect Kelly in the pocket.  Again, credit the Utah pass rush.

However, it seems clear that Taylor Kelly is still not back in rhythm.  He completed 18 of his 32 passes, including 1 TD pass to Jaelon Strong and 1 interception on an apparent screen pass.  But he is still missing badly on some routine throws.  There were at least 6 plays where the pass protection was good, the receiver was open and Kelly just flat missed on the throw.  Quite a few of those were on critical third downs.

Additionally, Kelly looks to be a little jittery in the pocket and even when he tucks the ball and runs, he still doesn’t quite have the same explosiveness he has shown in the past.  This is probably to be expected.  One would assume that with every week, every day, every rep that he gets, he will get more comfortable and more proficient at throwing the ball.

As for special teams, the units were solid against Utah.  Most analysts (including Devils in Detail) predicted that the Utah special teams units would be superior to ASU.  That wasn’t the case.  The ever dangerous return man, Kaelin Clay had one decent return, but other than that, he was bottled up nicely by the ASU coverage unit.  And of course, when it came down to it, everybody saw what happened with the place kickers.  The Utah kicker, nicknamed “Automatic Andy” missed a 36 yarder in overtime, while ASU kicker Zane Gonzalez made his 35 yarder in OT to take the victory.

Overall, a solid win.  But coach Graham will be the first to tell you that ASU has to clean up on the uncharacteristic penalties and get the offense going if they expect to beat Notre Dame next week.