Arizona State defensive coordinator Danny Gonzales will be the first to tell you that trying to stop Mike Leach’s air raid offense could be the defense’s most unique yet daunting task they face this season. However, coming off of a bye week- which Washington State is as well- has afforded him and his staff extra time to prepare, and helped some key players rejuvenate their bodies.
“They are unique,” Gonzales said of Washington State’s offense. “The statistics are unbelievable. Coach Leach, he might be the best quarterback coach in the history of this game, because if you look at his track record going all the way back to Kentucky starting with Tim Couch- that guy was unbelievable in college.”
Given what the Sun Devil defense is going up against, this bye week came at a perfect time for No. 18 ASU (4-1, 1-1 Pac-12), who will play this game with their highest program ranking in the AP poll in over four years. They will be able to do so with as close as they’ve had to a full complement of players since the first games of the season.
“You should be beat up at this time of year, five games in,” Gonzales said. “If you’re playing physical football, you’ve got a lot of nicks and bruises.”
The extra week of rest prior to facing the Cougars (3-2, 0-2 Pac-12) will allow numerous key players to dress; ones who have dealt with their own adversity in the injury department over recent weeks or even the course of the year.
Gonzales acknowledges the biggest key to slowing down the Cougars will be consistent and effective quarterback pressure
In discussing this upcoming matchup, most coaches and players deny that Utah provided any sort of blueprint to shutting down WSU’s offense in the team’s previous matchup, one in which the Cougars were held to 13 points after scoring between 31-67 points in each of the preceding four games.
However, there’s no denying that the Utes at least displayed, from a broader perspective, how Leach’s offense can be slowed. The answer, as Gonzales explained, is an effective pass-rush.
“I think we got talent in the (defensive backfield),” Gonzales said, “that if we can get pressure, we can cover them. You can’t cover anybody for six seconds. If the quarterback stands back there and has all day, they’re going to pick you apart. So, we got to be inventive and find ways to get to him, and cover him, and disguise our coverages enough so he doesn’t know them.”
The difference between ASU’s pass-rushing in each of the previous two games has been night and day. Not coincidentally, the results have been completely different as well.
In the team’s Pac-12 opener on September 21, the team hardly so much as touched Colorado quarterback Steven Montez, as Gonzales has previously noted, in a 34-31 loss at home. Fast forward six days to the matchup at then No. 15 California, and the pass rush efforts on both starter Chase Garbers, who played almost the entire first half before getting injured, and backup Devon Modster were significantly improved.
It’s also pretty explicit in the way Gonzales talks about what they need to do if they want to play well on Saturday that he understands the team’s ability to have a strong defensive showing hinges on the pass-rushing effectiveness, as well as winning the physical battle against an athletic, speedy WSU team.
“They know what to do because we’ve had two weeks…assignments and effort,” Gonzales said. “If they’re flying around and they’re mean and nasty and physical, and they want to try and hurt somebody every time the receiver catches a ball, and we got nine or 10 of them trying to kill that dude, I mean literally trying to just run him into the ground, then all of a sudden balls start rolling on the ground, and they don’t want to catch it and run, they want to catch it and cringe, that’s what the idea is. If we don’t play with that effort, then you see what they do, they score.”
Johnson knows how pass-rush must improve, discusses how Antonio Pierce benefited unit on the bye week
As you’ve heard numerous times if you’ve followed our ASU coverage closely, Danny Gonzales, if no one else, has cited Johnson as the team’s biggest threat as a pass-rusher. He pointed to that as a key for this season back at Camp T, and it will come into play in this game as much as any other in 2019.
In the aforementioned difference from the team’s pass-rushing against Colorado compared to California, Johnson seemed to be the biggest factor. He did not suit up for the Buffaloes matchup, as he was a game-time decision, but did return to face Cal, adding 0.5 sacks and a tackle-for-loss to show for his disruptive presence throughout the night.
He’s made it clear one can never be at 100 percent health this deep into the season, at least if you’ve been playing and practicing throughout, but he agreed that the bye week did help guys rejuvenate a bit.
“Everybody loved the bye week,” Johnson said. “Coach Herm, as he said, he held people out just to get their bodies back, and you know we were banged up early in the season. It was very beneficial for a lot of us, we rested, we kept up with our conditioning, our lifting, and we did a lot of treatment over the bye week just to get our bodies back.”
“You’ll never be 100 percent playing football…yeah, I am fighting through some things, but if I’m available, I’m available. I’ll do what I can, where the coaches need me- where they put me at, I’ll do it as best as I can…I’ve been very frustrated throughout these past couple months, just if it’s not one thing it’s another. You can’t let that really stop you in the moment, I’m with my team…you’re playing for them at the end of the day also, not just yourself.”
Ever since showing up in a sling to ASU’s Spring media day- which took place on the final day of January- after getting surgery on his shoulder, it seems from the outside, based on surface-level observations, that he’s faced his share of adversity throughout 2019 as he’s tried to work his way into the best possible playing condition.
When asked, Johnson did note how much linebackers coach Antonio Pierce does to not just help him, but the entire unit, in tapping into their full football potential, which helps everyone play to their highest level on game day.
“It’s crazy how we talk about techniques and stuff, it’s our eyes, like where our eyes are from our starting point to where they end up,” Johnson explained. “It’s just been very different since he’s been here, and as I said in my tweet, I feel like I’ve been playing football all wrong. Football is a game of communication and physicality, and that’s what he’s implemented in us.
“We probably start almost every meeting with- we’ll watch maybe a Sunday night game from the previous week, or a Monday night game or something, we’ll watch film, because he’ll be like ‘hey, look at this ‘backer, look what he’s doing, he’s reading this, his reading that, that looks exactly like our defense. You see what he’s doing and how fast it is, and he’s getting to the ball,’ and it’s like a one or two-yard gain, rather with us it’s maybe a five or six-yard gain.
“So, with us learning that way and him always showing us NFL film and showing us days like when he was playing and stuff like that, it gives you a whole new perspective.”
As far as what can specifically, be done for the front seven to play at its best, Johnson has some ideas.
“Everybody, the d-line, linebackers, sometimes the DB’s blitz, so (the pass-rush) is what we all need to work on,” Johnson said. “Just being quicker off the ball, being more violent with your hands, getting the O-lineman's hands off you. Just having a nose for the ball, we should be some sharks when we smell blood like we need to get there quick.”
Phillips to play this week three weeks after dislocating his elbow
While it initially seemed like a long shot that Phillips would see action against the Cougars, it appears that the redshirt freshman safety has been able to fast-track the standard four to six-week recovery time for the injury he suffered against Colorado.
This, in addition to senior cornerback Kobe Williams being able to dress on Saturday, is tremendous news for ASU’s secondary, and defense as a whole. Phillips, who Gonzales called “play-for-play arguably our most productive player” a few games into the season, even made a play during Sunday’s practice while wearing a protective brace on his elbow, and as his defensive coordinator explained, came out of it smiling and confident.
“I feel like that’s a mindset thing, I try not to think about it,” Phillips said of playing with the brace. “It is what it is, I don’t feel weird.”
He did admit, though, that the Sun Devils are prepared to play true freshman safety Willie Harts as much as they need to in his stead, someone him, as well as the coaches, have full confidence in as well.
“We have a whole package for him to come in for me so I can get a break,” Phillips said. “So, I mean we just build off of that. I knew at the beginning of the season we were going to need all of our DB’s. So, for me to be like, ‘oh, I don’t want to help him,’ that’s kind of just mean.”
Phillips added that it’s exciting to go against an offense that they know will be so pass-happy, but the unit needs to mentally be on top of everything if they want to play to their best, something he can always help with as he continues to work back from his injury.
“(The elbow) dislocated and sprained,” Phillips said, adding that he’s “getting there” in terms of getting back to full health.
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