Since Pac-12 play began for the Sun Devils on September 21 against the Colorado Buffaloes, it seems that things are becoming more predictable with each passing game (no pun intended), at least when ASU’s defense is on the field.

The game script seems to go something like this: let the opposing offense have its way with you in the first half- and especially in the first quarter, then make up for it in the second half by playing the lights-out defense that had ASU on the national map in the season’s early weeks, when the Sun Devils gave up only seven points total in each of their first three games.

“I’ve never seen that before,” defensive backs coach Tony White said about the discrepancy between halves. “It’s one thing if you install a new coverage and then all of a sudden that’s working, then that’s the game plan, that’s whatever. But we’re doing the exact same defense and they run one play, and it hits you, then they run it again five times and you stuff it for five times, so it’s more just getting out there and executing from the get-go and being more consistent, but that’s crazy.”

It’s so crazy, in fact, that defensive coordinator Danny Gonzales brought up one particularly outside-the-box idea to solving this problem in the latest coaches meeting, where this issue was obviously a key point of discussion.

“We’ve got to find a way to get them to start faster; I’ve never been around a group that starts so slow,” Gonzales commented. “I asked coach (Herm Edwards), I said, ‘let’s go out there 20 minutes before the game and let’s have a live scrimmage!’

“Before the game starts, let’s do it, because the other stuff isn’t working, why not!? You want a national story, that would be a national story. I got vetoed, so…”

While this plan would probably violate at least a few of the million NCAA compliance rules currently in place even had the other coaches agreed with him, it’s hard to blame Gonzales for thinking so crazy once you compare the numbers.

In looking at the first half versus the second half for the Sun Devil defense since the start of conference play, which accounts for the past seven games, the stats are night and day, which is something Edwards has alluded to in recent weeks.

When examining the first half of games in this stretch, ASU allows an average of 274.4 yards per game and 20.86 points. In the second half of the same contests, the Sun Devils allow 138.86 yards per game and 9.71 points. Talk about a tale of two halves.

“I would say timidness with us coming out,” junior Tillman safety Evan Fields said in regards to a key reason for this difference. “I think we think about too many things, get in our own head too much, and we just need to go out there, trust our training and our work through the week and just go out there and play, have fun.

“It’s easy to lose focus when you’re going throughout the plays, you know, and just being locked in. That has to come from yourself, and bringing some intensity onto the field.”

Certainly, Fields is one of the most insightful players on the team, and given his status as one of the upperclassman leaders and starters, it’s fair to think his word is a strong indicator of an underlying problem for the unit.

This maybe shouldn’t be as much of a surprise as it is because with so many freshmen and sophomores playing- something that, again, Edwards has alluded to countless times- it would seem natural for many in that position to overthink things to the point where it takes a given game to get to a point where things can’t get much worse before guys play up to their potential.

Just ask starting sophomore linebacker and captain Darien Butler, who’s played all 23 games of his ASU tenure thus far and is essentially the leader of these underclassmen, at least on that side of the ball.

“Just to let (the young guys) know that they’ve been here before, it’s not anything they haven’t done before,” Butler said about the message he spreads to the younger players getting in games. “I just try to let them know that it’s not too hard to adjust, just do what the coaches tell you.

“You got seniors ahead of you, so listen to them and watch what they’re doing, it’ll help you a lot. You got to work hard because we got seniors that probably won’t play again.”

It seems like he might have been referencing senior defensive lineman George Lea in that last part, who was an anchor of not only the line but the entire unit before suffering a season-ending knee injury in last week’s loss at Oregon State.

Of course, this just forces more and more young guys into action than we’ve already seen, which- with full respect to such an unfortunate injury to Lea- isn’t the worst thing for the near future of the program to have so many of them get baptized by fire, so to speak, throughout the 2018-19 seasons.

Naturally, the flip side of this is the growing pains, which appear to have manifested themselves in different ways over the course of Edwards’s first two seasons. Last year, it was the excruciating number of close losses, and now, clearly it’s that difference in performance between halves.

“Are we confusing them? Why are they not playing fast, then all of a sudden why are they settling down? What are they nervous of? What are they afraid of?” Gonzales said rhetorically. “We’ve thrown everything out there like I said, live scrimmage, throw it out there, something’s going to stick, and as soon as we figure it out- last year it was the third quarter.

“We had a third-quarter period in practice this year, I mean that was the emphasis. The third quarter hasn’t been the issue this year…the last two weeks, we’ve changed the order of some of the things we do in practice trying to match it up for the pregame. If you’re not arrogant and stubborn, there’s nothing you’re (not) willing to try.”

Gonzales went on to explain that, in addition to Edwards, he has consulted with the head coach at his former school, San Diego State’s Rocky Long, who has been in coaching for 45 years.

Needless to say, it hasn’t been for a lack of effort in solving this issue. However, everyone knows there’s hardly a more difficult opponent than the No. 6 Oregon Ducks to try to reverse this trend against. But from the sounds of the unit’s senior leaders, they’re ready to step up to the challenge.

“I feel like these past few weeks we’ve played down to people’s levels,” senior linebacker Khaylan Kearse-Thomas commented. “I feel like, we were better than the last couple teams that we played. Going into this game, they’re a top-tier team. I feel like we’re a top-tier team, we just have to show it with our play.”

Senior defensive lineman Roe Wilkins echoed a similar sentiment and added that he expects the team will fix the issue of slow starts.

“We’re a young team, and sometimes some guys just got to get settled into the moment,” Wilkins stated. “We need to come out expecting to play well, and stop them on their scripted plays…we’ve seen it for four weeks now, and we’re going to do better this week.”

Wilkins will have to embrace a much larger role with Lea out, which shouldn’t be a problem given how much he’s rotated in on gamedays already.

But for the unit as a whole, the time has just about come to put those words and potential solutions into action. Whether or not this game follows the script of the last four or the Sun Devils can break out of the funk, the whole nation will be watching in their biggest game of the 2019 season.

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