A week after what some would deem an unimpressive performance against UTSA, ASU offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey still definitely was able to draw some positives from what he saw.
“I was proud of our guys, I thought they did a lot of good things,” he said. “In the second half, things aren’t going your way…I thought our guys reached down and really when things were tough they stayed together and kept playing extremely hard.”
But now the challenge ramps up with the start of conference play against Cal Saturday.
Offensively, the Sun Devils could look to take advantage of a Cal rushing defense that is the third-worst in the FBS (296 yards per game). But just because Cal struggles in one aspect, doesn’t mean ASU is taking them lightly, even if most casual onlookers only look mostly as Cal’s offense.
“They’ve been doing really good for the last couple of years,” redshirt senior left tackle Evan Goodman said. “I feel like they should get more respect.”
For freshman receiver N’Keal Harry, the game will have more of a personal feel as he knows some of the players on the Golden Bears’ roster.
“I know there are some good players on that team,” Harry said. “We gotta go into that game and make sure we’re focused and ready to play.”
With conference play ready to begin, Lindsey noted that it will be a difficult stretch but the Sun Devils are ready for it.
“You play in a conference like this, each week is going to be tough,” Lindsey said. “It’s going to be pone of those weeks where it’s a gut check, so to speak, so now we have (the UTSA experience) to rely on.”
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Texas was able to gash Cal largely by setting its offense up through he running game. This first cut up is an example of a basic power run the Longhorns used out of a single back shotgun set with two receivers to the top of the picture and a lone receiver on the bottom.
At the snap the entire offensive line fires out through a combination of man and combination blocks. Cal’s linebackers get caught up in the wash of bodies and are unable to flow to stop the back as he heads to the right.
With the linebackers late flowing over and an offensive lineman in front of him, the running back is able to find his way to the end zone rather easily.
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After being softened by the running game, Cal’s defense was also susceptible to the quick passing game off of play action.
In the first cut we see Cal’s defensive e backs (in the blue circles) playing well off the line of scrimmage and paying heavy attention to the three receivers at the top of the slide. Instead of trying to force a throw down the field, the quarterback is going to take the backside comeback route instead.
The underneath linebacker is in no position to make a play and the Cal defensive back (behind the scoreboard) is also too far back to be bale to make a break on the ball.
This leaves for a relatively easy pitch-and-catch between the receiver and quarterback with no defenders in the vicinity to make a play.
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This final slide my be the most interesting because of its similarity to a formation ASU might use.
This is Texas’ heavy personnel package called “18 Wheeler,” although not a wildcat-style formation like ASU’s “Sparky” package it is similar in its usage.
The 18 Wheeler package does use a traditional quarterback, but he is a heavier, larger, running-apt quarterback and, as we will see, they can run an effective dive from this package.
After a quick fake, the quarterback dives straight ahead as the backside of the offensive line pulls around.
The quarterback barrels his way forward for a solid gain in a play reminiscent of some of ASU junior running back Kalen Ballage’s runs when the Sparky formation was debuted.
