USC sophomore tailback Justin Davis runs through the ASU defense on Oct. 3, 2014. ASU won 38-34. (Photo by Alexis Macklin)Coming in to the 2014 season, the ASU football team knew that the youth of its defense could be exposed against some of the elite teams in the Pac-12.
With new starters at every level of the unit, players had to be up to the challenge of a grueling schedule full of explosive offenses.
The defense showed marked improvement in tackling each week over the Sun Devils's first three games, tackling better and better each week and forcing six turnovers in wins over New Mexico and Colorado.
In the team's fourth game, however, the defense faltered tremendously, giving up 62 points in a home loss to UCLA, which uncovered glaring holes in the unit. The Bruins had four plays of 50 yards or more on offense, mostly due to breakdowns in coverage or missed tackles.
Just over a week later, the Sun Devils tightened up the defense against the USC Trojans. The longest play that ASU allowed was a 53-yard touchdown run to redshirt junior running back Javorius "Buck" Allen in the fourth quarter that put the Trojans up by nine points before ASU's comeback.
Defensive coordinator Keith Patterson said that the biggest improvement he saw from the UCLA game to the USC game was the ability to not let up big plays.
"I think the one thing we did until the last stages of the game was that we eliminated the big plays, the ones that were absolutely catastrophic," Patterson said. "What you saw up until the USC (game) is, once we did have a breakdown and once we gave up those big plays, it seemed like there were three more in succession, so I think we got a lot better there."
Patterson recognizes that one of the problems with having such a young defense is that it is difficult to address everything in practice, which sometimes results in poorer play on Saturdays.
"That's the thing about inexperienced players in certain positions is that you sit there and you're so focused trying to get them up to speed and game-plan ready, you tend to let some of the fundamentals and the things that really matter slip," Patterson said. "You only have so much time in the day and you're only going to make so much improvement each and every day, so you've just got to try to pick and choose scheme or fundamentals. That's what's great about this week. We've gone back to the basics of trying to emphasize what's important and I think it's really good for us."
Patterson said the team's tackling overall has been getting better all season and that will be no different in two weeks when ASU plays again.
"Up until the UCLA game, I thought the tackling was improving each and every week," Patterson said. "Then we got exposed out in space a little bit versus UCLA. I did think we did a better job and I think you'll see a much better tackling team against Stanford than you saw against USC."
Additional Notes:
-Redshirt senior quarterback Taylor Kelly was not dressed for practice Wednesday, but he was out of a walking boot and warming up with the other quarterbacks before practice. Kelly has been out since suffering a foot injury in the win over Colorado on Sept. 13.
Reach the reporter at mtonis@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @Tonis_The_Tiger
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