Dorian Thompson-Robinson surged forward away from pressure, practically licking his lips at the amount of daylight in front of him.
The UCLA quarterback left the pass rush behind, eating up ground with long strides on quick cuts. Khoury Bethley squared up in the open space, feet drumming the ground in urgent anticipation. This open-field tackle he had to make.
Bethley sprung forward on a lunge. Thompson-Robinson took the vertical staircase instead. He cleared Bethley’s helmet on the hurdle before the Arizona State safety was smacked by his own teammate, defensive tackle Omarr Norman-Lott, and lost his grip.
Thompson-Robinson was UCLA’s rushing yards leader at halftime. By the end of the game, a 50-36 home loss for ASU, the Bruins had used four players to stockpile 402 rushing yards and five touchdowns. It was the most the Sun Devils have given up on the ground since Arizona in the 2016 Territorial Cup.
“As a defense as a whole, we just need to be better,” Edmonds said. “400 yards on the ground, we just can’t allow that to happen. We pride ourselves as a defense on being fast and physical, so we can’t let that happen.”
It was the “DTR” show for most of the night at Sun Devil Stadium. The dual-threat quarterback rebounded well after he was intercepted by safety Chris Edmonds on the first play of the game. Thompson-Robinson dazzled on UCLA’s following drive on a scramble away from pressure, finding more air time over nickel cornerback Jordan Clark as he soared across the goal line.
The fifth-year senior out-sprinted the pursuit angle of ASU defensive end Travez Moore on his second rushing touchdown in the third quarter, prancing into the end zone from four yards out.
Thompson-Robinson finished with 120 rushing yards on ten attempts, completing 13 of 20 passes for 169 yards and two touchdowns. He threw just three passes in the second half.
The ASU defense was badly sliced open despite star UCLA running back Zach Charbonnet watching from the sideline due to injury. But even with Charbonnet inactive, whoever UCLA called upon to answer the bell came ready to shoulder the workload.
Kazmeir Allen had 137 rushing yards and 63 receiving yards, leading UCLA in both marks. Allen notched the longest play of the game on a 75-yard romp that ended in paydirt in the third quarter. Keegan Jones received the most carries, toting the rock on 12 occasions for 98 yards and a touchdown. Colson Yankoff, fourth in UCLA’s depth chart, had 48 yards and a touchdown on eight carries.
The UCLA offense was efficient and wore down the ASU front seven, converting 9 of 11 third downs and scoring on every trip to the red zone. The Bruins averaged 9.2 yards per play, even as Chip Kelly’s play-calling lent itself heavily toward his backfield in the second half.
ASU knew the run was coming, and they still couldn’t stop it. After the Sun Devils came within a touchdown of the Bruins in the fourth quarter, UCLA ran the ball on seven straight plays to put the game out of reach.
ASU scored a few victories, most notably sacking Thompson-Robinson twice on UCLA’s last drive of the first half. But getting off the field has been a difficult task for the Sun Devils this season. UCLA had no problem moving the chains on throws against off-coverage and hard-nosed effort in the trenches.
UCLA ran 16 plays and drove 90 yards, converting four first downs. Thompson-Robinson found his tight end, Michael Ezeike, wide open between the jaws of the secondary. It was too easy for the Bruins.
“We’ve been having trouble all season with that,” interim head coach Shaun Aguano said. “We get them in third-and-12, and they’re running stop routes at 14 yards, and we’re in the area but not attached to somebody. I need to go back and get with the defensive coaches and see what we need to do about that.”
Another factor that impacted the steeliness of ASU’s run defense was a flu bug that impacted Norman-Lott and Nesta Jade Silvera, two of the team’s primary interior linemen. With both players feeling under the weather and eventually replaced by depth options, the Sun Devils struggled to remain competitive in the gaps. When UCLA dialed up the tempo of its attack, it made things even more difficult.
“It’s tough because we’re thin there, but that’s still no excuse,” Aguano said.
ASU falls to 3-6 on the season and 2-4 in Pac-12 play. The Sun Devils will look to get back on track on the road against Washington State next Saturday.
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