Coming into the season, the expectations for ASU’s defensive line were sky high.

Senior defensive end Dexter Davis had registered 27.5 career sacks in only three seasons, sophomore defensive tackle Lawrence Guy earned Freshman All-American honors and sophomore defensive end James Brooks was expected to contribute immediately.

Through the first four games, however, the ASU defense had registered only three sacks, with the defensive line contributing only one.

The defensive line took out its frustration on Washington State on Saturday, recording 9.5 sacks out of 12 total sacks registered by ASU’s defense. ASU leaped from No. 115 nationally in sacks to No. 12 as a result of that performance.

Brooks knew it was only a matter of time before the sacks came.

“We knew we weren’t getting sacks but we were working hard,” Brooks said. “The sacks are going to come if you keep working hard and have a high motor and keep being relentless in the pass rush.”

Brooks, playing in only his second game of the season, recorded 2.5 sacks to lead the Sun Devils along with Guy. After not recording a sack in his first game back against Oregon State, Brooks wanted to make sure people didn’t forget about him.

“I thought I had underachieved [against] Oregon State,” Brooks said. “It was my first game back and didn’t really have the speed of the game down, so I really wanted to come out and make some plays and let everybody know I was here.”

ASU coach Dennis Erickson was extremely impressed by the performance, but cautioned getting too caught up in the numbers.

“The reality of it is, ‘Who did you play?’” Erickson said, in reference to WSU’s beat up offensive line. “Twelve is good against anybody, that’s almost unheard of. Our guys like the idea of being able to get there and people are going to start keeping six or seven guys back [to protect the quarterback].

The defensive line will have a big challenge this week containing Washington quarterback Jake Locker.

“We want to play in our rush lanes, we don’t want to get too far up the field and make it a two-man or three-man rush because he can run out of that,” Brooks said. “We want to make sure we collapse the pocket and keep him bottled in.”

In addition to the sacks, ASU currently ranks second in the country in rushing yards allowed per game, in large part due to the line.

“For our defense collectively, stopping the run is the number one goal every week,” Brooks said. “No matter who the opponent is, we want to stop the run every week.”

Injury update

Junior cornerback Omar Bolden and sophomore center Garth Gerhart both sat out practice on Tuesday, but Erickson said both will play on Saturday.

Sophomore guard Zach Schlink, a projected starter who has yet to play all season due to a knee injury, dressed on Tuesday, but Erickson said it was doubtful he would play this weekend.

“He’s moving around better,” Erickson said. “Hopefully, with where he’s at right now, he’ll be able to play after Washington.”

Erickson said sophomore guard/tackle Matt Hustad would be able to return next week.

Reach the reporter at kyle.glaser@asu.edu.