After their first 4-0 start in nine years, the Sun Devils had a swagger about them. But that swagger was lost after a 41-20 rout at the hands of the USC Trojans.
Quarter by quarter, more flaws kept getting exposed as the game got out of reach. The Sun Devils let one of the best receivers in the country, USC’s JuJu Simth-Schuster, torch their secondary as he racked up 123 yards and 3 touchdowns. ASU could not get any pressure on freshman quarterback Sam Darnold as he sat back in the pocket and picked apart ASU’s defense.
One of those players who Darnold took advantage of was Senior Cornerback, De’chavon “Gump” Hayes; Hayes just transitioned into a corner back this season after being an option out of the backfield for the Sun Devils last season. The transition hasn’t gone so smooth, as he is part of an ASU secondary that has given up the most passing yards in the nation.
Graham tried switching up the defense on Saturday as he had 4 guys go in at safety including J’Marcus Rhodes (who started), then James Johnson, Laiu Moeakiola, and Chad Adams. None of whom could make a significant difference.
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Graham has tried to help his secondary by blitzing significantly less, last year the Sun Devils blitzed on around 60 percent of passing plays, this year there just around 27 percent.
That change has not helped the secondary contain any of their first five opponents. Granted the stats and critique is slightly flawed given they have played the top two passing offenses, in Texas Tech and Cal, but in order to compete in the Pac-12, ASU is going to need to stop the pass happy teams in the conference.
The Sun Devils may look to bring in some freshmen, including a four star defensive back from Virginia, Robbie Robinson, and Chase Lucas, who played running back at Chandler High School, but has now turned into a corner in Tempe. They are both extremely athletic and could possible bring some depth to the secondary.
The good news for Sun Devil fans is that ASU has been in this position nearly every year of the Todd Graham era. After a big loss ASU always finds a way to turn it around.
In 2013, the Devils got blown out at Stanford, but then rallied to win 8 of their last 9 games and the Pac-12 South. The next year, after losing to UCLA 62-27, ASU rallied to win there next 5 and were at one point ranked #6 in the nation.
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This is not the end of the season for ASU; they are only one game behind Colorado for the Pac-12 south lead. In order to win the Pac-12 south for the second time in the Todd Graham era, they will need to make some major adjustments on defense. Todd Graham has done it before, and hopefully he can do it again and get this team back on track.