TEMPE – The last time Arizona State hosted a Big 12 team for a night game, Baylor lit up the scoreboard at Mountain America Stadium, posting 55 points. Two weeks later, Texas Tech hung up 53 points on the Sun Devils in Lubbock
Coach Kenny Dillingham felt the results did not reflect the defense that impressed him throughout fall camp. So he challenged the unit.
Since then, ASU has returned to its early-season form. In its last two home games, the Maroon and Gold held their two opponents to a combined 25 points. Then, in a raucous road environment, then-ranked No. 8 BYU only mustered 27 in a tightly-knit contest.
For the Sun Devils (5-4, 3-3 Big 12), setting the tone early has been a struggle, especially on defense.
It seemed to be heading in the right direction before junior defensive back Rodney Bimage Jr. went down with an injury with five minutes left in the first quarter. With one of its defensive lynchpins down, the momentum that ASU had garnered so far against the Colorado Buffaloes (3-6, 1-5 Big 12) could have evaporated.
Yet, even with the medical training staff lifting one of ASU’s most important defensive players, Bimage, into a cart, surrounded by teammates who gathered around him to share their best wishes, the defense didn’t skip a beat.
In fact, the defense never looked back en route to a 20-10 win in front of the home fans on Nov. 7 at Mountain American Stadium.
“That guy (Bimage) gives everything he’s got every day,” junior linebacker Owen Long said. “To see someone go down like that, obviously, is not anything we want. But like you said, the team rallied around it. (It was) going out there and playing for him, doing what we would do, which is play as hard as we can.”
The Sun Devils held Colorado scoreless through an entire half of football, the first time it’s been done this year by defensive coordinator Brian Ward’s side. In the yardage department, the Buffs could only find 103 total — 62 of those came on a 45-second drive right before halftime.
Long, part of the Pat Tillman Leadership Council, led the way with a season-high 17 tackles, one tackle-for-loss and one quarterback hit. The Colorado State transfer has now logged double-digit tackles in six games, including three straight.
While Long leads the way for the much-improved defensive unit over the past few weeks, he’s had a few players step up behind him to contribute to the unit’s resurgence.
Junior defensive end Albert Smith III only had half a sack to start another year in Tempe, but finally saw extended time on the talented ASU line. Number three ended up logging three total sacks, finding himself in the backfield time and time again as an experienced veteran.
One of his clutch takedowns was a 24-yard loss, chasing Buffalo junior quarterback Isaac Wilson all around the backfield. After finally catching the Colorado signal caller, with a full-extension dive, Smith completely flipped momentum to his side.
Dillingham remains excited for Smith’s potential and views him as a viable option down the stretch in conference play.
“I’ve challenged him a lot because he has so much talent,” Dillingham said. “Sometimes he doesn’t like me, but I think he’s starting to learn. There’s a reason I’m choosing to challenge him and be after him because he has so much ability. So for him to see and to feel that really for the first time in the game, hopefully that becomes contagious for him.”
Right behind him as a teammate, junior linebacker Prayer Young-Blackgoat also stood out. He’s seen a minimal amount of game action in conference play, recording only 13 total tackles in the year and no tackles-for-loss. Yet, in the Sun Devils’ win, Blackgoat found himself in the backfield twice in one night.
While the run defense was stout, only giving up 64 total on the ground, it was the pass defense that needed to show up against a Buffalo team that’s moved the ball through the air.
Colorado’s quarterback, Wilson, has struggled to keep the ball out of harms way, tossing seven interceptions since stepping in as a full-time starter. With his team down on the scoreboard for most of the contest, Wilson had to throw into tight windows with a juiced defense staring him down.
After four straight three-and-outs and Colorado’s first first down around the seven-minute mark in the second quarter, Wilson forced a pass deep down the field. Senior defensive back Ashton Stamps roamed in deep coverage and perfectly read the eyes of the quarterback, gaining his very first pick in his new colors.
Dillingham remained pleased with the team’s effort that led to the tone-setting interception to start the second half.
“Good teams make the plays when they work together, and they play team defense,” Dillingham said. “That was a team defense interception, and I think that’s what fired me up. … The team created that; everybody understood the assignment, and they made it happen.”
While Coach Prime’s squad started to find an offensive rhythm in the second half, the hole it dug itself into in the first 44 minutes proved too deep. With the Sun Devil defense running around the field, the offense took an early lead and never settled.
Now one win away from bowl eligibility, the Maroon and Gold will travel over 2,000 miles to take on the UCF Golden Knights. With the defensive unit humming and confident freshman quarterback Jake Fette at the helm, ASU will look to generate some momentum down the stretch.
“We feel like, as a defense, things have been week by week,” Long said. “We have felt our confidence grow. We’ve done nothing but just get back to work and just go out there and let our work speak for itself. Go play as hard as we can. … You know we’re going to go play as hard as we can and try to make a play.”
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