ASU’s defensive line shines in loss to Colorado

Through the first five weeks of the season, arguably the strongest component of Arizona State football has been the aggressiveness of its defensive line. Entering Saturday’s game versus Colorado, the Sun Devils’ 13 sacks ranked them top 20 nationally.

After finishing 10th in the Pac-12 last year with just 17 total sacks, first-year defensive coordinator, Brian Ward came to Tempe with the goal of creating more chaos upfront, recruiting multiple pass rushers to completely revamp the pass rushing efforts. Against Colorado, the defensive line had one of its best performances of the year, tallying five sacks and nine tackles for loss. With six games in, the Sun Devils have already exceeded the total number of sacks from last year.

“We had a good beat on when they were going to five-step drop just in terms of down and distances,” head coach Kenny Dillingham said about his defensive line’s performance. “I thought coach Ward was putting our guys in good situations to attack when they were in their five-step drop. So, I thought it was a good scheme by coach Ward combined with our guys. We have pretty good rushers, and I thought they did a really nice job of pressuring the quarterback.”

Transferring from Texas, junior EDGE Prince Dorbah was unable to crack the Longhorns rotation in Austin, but so far for ASU, Dorbah has been their biggest game wrecker on defense, even though entering the season, he wasn’t projected to be starting.

After moving junior BJ Green from defensive tackle to the outside and bringing in sophomore EDGE Clayton Smith, an Oklahoma transfer, Dorbah spent most of his time on the second team. Yet, when Smith went down with an injury in the game against Fresno State, Dorbah immediately entered to make a difference. Against the Bulldogs, Dorbah posted eight total tackles with two sacks, and since then, he hasn’t left the starting lineup.

Against Colorado, Dorbah made his presence known early and often. After ASU drove down the field to score on their first drive of the game, Colorado junior quarterback Shedeur Sanders was sacked on his first drop back of the game. Dorbah and senior defensive tackle Anthonie Cooper hit Sanders at nearly the same time, splitting the sack and forcing an intentional grounding penalty.

Two plays later, Dorbah was in the backfield once again, bringing down Sanders on third down and ending Colorado’s opening drive almost single-handedly.

“I come from a family where I’m the only person who’s gotten this opportunity to play college football,” Dorbah said. “I tell every day since I’ve came here, I’ll take advantage of the opportunities, and I’m blessed to have great teammates and coaches put me in these opportunities, make these plays, so I’m just blessed to be able to be here.”

Later in the third quarter, Colorado was driving once again, nearing the fifty-yard line down three points. On 3rd-and-10, Sanders held on to the ball too long with good coverage from ASU downfield, and Dorbah eventually got to him before he was able to scramble out, forcing a loss of 17 yards and a Colorado punt.

It wasn’t all Dorbah on the defensive line, though. Five different ASU players tallied at least half a sack, with eight of them recording a tackle for loss. ASU entered halftime with a lead, thanks in large part to the pressure they were getting on Colorado. However, the Buffaloes made adjustments at halftime, and the Sun Devil struggled to get as much pressure on Sanders in the second half as they did in the first half.

Nonetheless, ASU’s final sack of the game came at a crucial juncture. Following a 51-yard punt return from graduate wide receiver Xavier Weaver, Green came off of the edge and sacked Sanders for a loss of 11 yards, halting Colorado’s momentum. The Buffaloes weren’t able to recover from the play and walked away with only a field goal. It was their final sack of the game.

“I think that we did like we started off really fast as a defensive line,” Green said. “We got after it, executed very well, towards the end, we just got those little things that we got to harp on in order to get that more consistently. This was definitely a game that was one of our strong suits, getting after it.”

“For me, one thing that I told myself I need to get better was be consistent,” Dorbah said about what he needs to improve on. “Be consistent every day in what I do on and off the field, and that’s what we’re all striving to do.”

While the defensive line has been the defense’s greatest strength, the inability to force turnovers has quickly become one of ASU’s biggest problems. They rank near the bottom of the country in turnovers and are ahead of just Stanford in the Pac-12, which has yet to force a turnover.

ASU has played three straight close games against conference opponents, and one turnover by the defense could have made the difference in each one. Earlier this week, Dillingham said that in order to create turnovers, they need to continue to create chaos up front. That goal has been achieved, but the turnovers have yet to materialize.

“It’s just we’re not creating turnovers,” Dillingham noted. “When the ball hits our hands, there are times we don’t catch it. Then, when the ball does come out, there was a fumble today that we didn’t recover on a fourth or third-down sack that they fell on that just kind of oozed out, and the lineman was right there. So, they’ll come, and the turnovers will come. Unfortunately, they haven’t come yet.”

With five straight losses and two one-score losses in back-to-back games, it becomes more and more difficult to take away moral victories, but the ASU defense continues to be a bright spot in each game. Entering Saturday’s game, Colorado averaged 34.2 points per game, scoring more than 35 points in four of their five games. ASU held them to 27, and through five games, it is clear that the Sun Devil Defense will keep it close and give the team a chance to win each and every week.

“There is zero doubt in my mind that we’re going in the right direction,” Dillingham commented. “There is zero doubt in my mind that we’re gonna win at a really, really high level here. And I’m really excited about it. But that’s just gonna happen when it happens.”

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