Check out a slideshow from Thursday's victory over UC Davis!
The ASU football team knew it possessed plenty of weapons on defense heading into the 2011 season.Those weapons took center stage in the Sun Devils’ season opener on Thursday.
The ASU first team defense came out firing from the get-go in a 48-14 thumping of the Aggies.
The defense kept the UC Davis offense dead silent for the game’s first three quarters. ASU allowed just five first downs and 80 yards of total offense in the first half while the Aggies did not score until 12:21 in the fourth quarter.
“Defensively after the first drive or two they got a little bit, we played pretty good on defense,” ASU coach Dennis Erickson said.
The Sun Devils entered their season opener without two of their defensive superstars, senior cornerback Omar Bolden and senior linebacker Brandon Magee. Bolden suffered an ACL injury during spring practice while Magee tore his Achilles during fall training camp.
Despite the absence of a pair of dynamic players, ASU managed to routinely batter UC Davis’ offensive unit. Aggie sophomore quarterback Randy Wright was held to 16 of 28 and 130 passing yards while suffering five sacks.
Wright was frequently forced to scramble as the Sun Devils penetrated the offensive line with ease.
“Our first unit came out early on in the game, played real well,” senior linebacker Colin Parker said. “We had some minor issues later on. They scored both touchdowns in the second half. Overall it was a good first game, but we’re going to have to look at the film and make some corrections for next week.”
It didn’t take long for junior linebacker Vontaze Burfict to make his presence felt. On the fifth play of the game, Burfict sacked Wright for a two-yard loss, forcing the Aggies to punt.
Burfict struck again during UC Davis’ third first quarter drive. As Wright scrambled, the hard-hitting linebacker dropped him at the 16-yard line for a loss of nine. Prior to this season, Burfict owned just two career sacks. He tacked on three sacks on Thursday night alone.
Sophomore defensive end Junior Onyeali and senior linebacker Oliver Aaron each added a sack of their own.
In 2010, ASU led the entire Pac-10 in rushing defense by surrendering just 120.2 yards per game. The Sun Devils continued that dominance on Thursday, holding UC Davis to 88 rushing yards and just three third down conversions in the game. UC Davis averaged 3.4 yards per rush.
Defensive coordinator Craig Bray continued to pound the opposition with blitzes throughout the game.
“I wasn’t surprised,” Parker said. “We got the game plan earlier in the week, and there were a lot of blitzes. Whether they call them or not we’ll see in the games. But we got in, I feel like we’ve been blitzing pretty well in camp. It was time to show it off.”
Despite seeing positives from his defense, Erickson is adamant that improvement will be necessary ahead of ASU’s matchup against No. 21 Missouri next weekend.
“We’ll learn from this,” Erickson said. “We’ll look at the tape tomorrow. Hopefully we’ll learn some things and get ready to start preparation for them.”
Reach the reporter at greg.dillard@asu.edu
