Defense flips the switch at halftime, shuts out Rebels in second half
For the first 30 minutes of No. 23 ASU’s battle against UNLV on Saturday night, the Sun Devil defense looked flat. The formidable unit fell short on numerous occasions, struggling to make stops on third down, running upfield on the pass rush, and missing easy turnover opportunities.
In the third quarter, though, it clearly became a story of two halves. The Sun Devils flipped a switch on defense, making the plays they couldn’t in the first two periods of play. The group gave up 136 yards to the Rebels in the first 30 minutes, but for the final 30, they only allowed 19, as they came together to give the offense the ball back en route to a 37-10 victory at Sun Devil Stadium.
The first half struggle began with the Rebels’ first offensive drive, starting at their own 20 after ASU junior quarterback Jayden Daniels threw an interception in the endzone. The UNLV backfield duo of redshirt freshman quarterback Doug Brumfield and senior running back Charles Williams trudged up the Tempe turf, rushing for short but effective yardages.
Brumfield also managed to take advantage of ASU’s zone defense looks and find his receivers consistently on third down. The Rebels went three-for-four on third-down situations, seemingly sucking the life out of the Sun Devil defense time and time again. The 16 play, 70-yard, nearly eight-minute drive might have ended in a field goal, but it showed that UNLV came to Tempe to play.
“(Brumfield) was just making plays,” head coach Herm Edwards explained in his postgame address. “He’s on scholarship too, you know. He’s a good player; that’s just football. When he leaves the pocket, we always say, you have to know where the quarterback is.”
“They made some good plays and were excited. They went on that 16-play drive, and that was probably good for us. In the fact that that’s a conditioning drill too…. Their quarterback was the main guy; he got out and made some plays. That gave them energy.”
The Rebels continued to use their first-quarter momentum to propel them on a long trot down Frank Kush Field in the second period of play as well. Brumfield began with a 14-yard strike to junior wideout Steve Jenkins. UNLV then added 13-yard and 15-yard gains on the run and through the air, respectively. Brumfield put the icing on the cake with an incredible front flip score into the endzone over senior linebacker and captain Darien Butler, regaining a 10-7 lead. The second UNLV drive was even more effective than the first, as the Rebels converted in 11 plays, 75 yards, and just under six minutes.
“We were covering up the guys on the back end, but their quarterback kept finding rushing lanes to scramble in and (convert) on third down,” graduate student corner Chase Lucas said.
“When you play a Power Five team, a Pac-12 team, it doesn’t take much to motivate your team,” Edwards explained, opening the perspective of UNLV’s early success. “When you score like that, you have energy. We had to work our way all the way through that... I’ve coached those teams before, where you work through a couple of first downs and gain some confidence. All of a sudden, you’re in a game, and you’re excited.”
The Sun Devils began to get their act together towards the end of the first half, forcing a three-and-out with less than three minutes to play in the half. Entering the halftime break, defensive coordinator Antonio Pierce, Edwards, Lucas, and the entire defensive side of the ball knew things needed to change.
“I think the guys settled down,” Pierce mentioned. “(UNLV) made plays early and did a great job with the quarterback scrambling, buying some time, and keeping the ball. We expected to make those plays. The guys were there; we just needed to make the plays.”
“I sensed that it was going to be kind of one of those games, where you get a feel for your football team. I told them the third quarter was when we’re going to have to go,” Edwards described, referring to the message he told his players at halftime. “We got in at halftime, and I said, ‘Okay, it’s the third quarter now. We make the adjustments; you guys have to go play and let’s do this.’”
The defense suddenly flipped the switch. They contained Brumfield and roughed him up, requiring sophomore backup Justin Rogers to step in. Long gone were the lengthy drives and painful third-down conversions. The first UNLV drive of the third quarter was a three-and-out. So was the second, as well as the third and the fourth and so on. Across the duration of the entire second half, the Rebels only accumulated 19 yards, 117 less than their first-half yardage.
ASU’s success in the third, which lit the unit’s fire for the rest of the contest, can largely be accredited to a cage rush style of containment while bringing significantly more pressure than it showed in the first half. The Sun Devils at times rushed up to six players into the Rebels’ offensive front. Butler, continuing his streak of twos, which he began against Southern Utah, with two interceptions, racked up two sacks of his own in the third quarter.
“That guy is one of the best players on our football team, probably one of the best players in the Pac-12,” Pierce praised. “He had a hell of an offseason, and he’s showing up… He’s dialed in, and we try to keep him up because he’s such a physical player. What’d you see him doing last week? He intercepted the ball. What did he do this week? He sacked the quarterback. He’s pretty versatile. That’s a complete linebacker to me. That’s a three-down linebacker. People better pay attention.”
Up front, the Sun Devils found excellent production from the likes of graduate transfer defensive end Travez Moore, who recorded two tackles and a tackle for loss. Redshirt senior defensive end Tyler Johnson recorded four tackles, a sack, and a tackle for loss. It was the young bucks, though, that caused quite the stir, even drawing comparisons to great freshmen of the past, now senior leaders on this year’s team.
“(Walk-on freshman 3-tech defensive tackle B.J. Green and freshman defensive end Gharin Stansbury) are funny,” Edwards said, smirking. “They’re just so excited when they go in the game. Can you imagine where B.J. is coming from? He’s almost leading the team in sacks. It’s just amazing. The more you watch them, you just love their attitude.”
“We’ve been fortunate enough to have some freshmen like (them). A couple that comes to mind is (senior linebacker) Merlin (Robertson) and (Butler). They came in as freshmen along with some other kids that came in and played right away, and that’s okay. I think they’re going to help us, and they’re going to get better, which is a good thing.”
Stansbury followed Green’s lead from last week, recording a sack on his first series in maroon and gold. He finished Saturday night with two tackles, a tackle for loss, and a sack. Green had a half a sack.
While it may not have been the prettiest of efforts for the first 25-30 minutes for the Sun Devils, they got their act together, and they knew what it was going to take to do so. Edwards anticipated it, and so did Lucas. If this group can continue to prepare their expectations for the situations they will find themselves in, they should be just as talented at removing themselves from those scenarios as they go forward this fall.
“We really just let the coaches make the adjustments at halftime,” Lucas said. “We make the adjustments we need to make and then ask the coaches up in the (press) box what they’re seeing. Honestly, I have to give it up to coach Herm. Everything he says before we go out there – he gives us key notes, like stopping the run, stopping the quarterback.”
“I can’t say enough to these guys. We’re already ready. We’ve been practicing, we’ve been training for the past six, seven months, and we’ve been waiting for these moments. I think we are just ready to go, and I’m glad we got the dub. Now it’s on to BYU.”
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