ASU’s defensive numbers are terrible, but 4-0 certainly does look nice
Sep 25, 2016, 12:39 AM
Arizona State linebacker Salamo Fiso, right, celebrates his interception with De'Chavon Hayes during the second half of an NCAA college football game against California, Saturday, Sept. 24, 2016, in Tempe, Ariz. Arizona State won 51-41. (AP Photo/Matt York)
(AP Photo/Matt York)
TEMPE, Ariz. — Arizona State head coach Todd Graham has said on numerous occasions this football season that he doesn’t care about stats. The only thing that matters is the final score.
That’s probably a good thing.
His Sun Devils are the owners of an unblemished 4-0 record after winning their Pac-12 opener over California, 51-41, Saturday night. Under the surface, however, things don’t look as pretty.
Cal quarterback Davis Webb threw for 478 yards and five touchdowns against ASU’s pass defense, which is now yielding an average of 404 yards per game in the air.
But that doesn’t matter, either. It was actually ASU’s defense that turned the game around in the fourth quarter. After Manny Wilkins found tight end Jay Jay Wilson on a 30-yard touchdown pass to tie the score at 34-34 with 6:21 to go, the defense stepped up.
Linebacker Salamo Fiso, playing his first game of the season after serving a three-game suspension for failing to meet team standards, stepped in front of a Webb pass on first down and returned it to the Cal 15-yard line. Zane Gonzalez would end up booting a 23-yard field goal to give ASU its first lead at 37-34.
The ‘D’ wasn’t done. Two plays later, Laiu Moeakiola picked off Webb and raced 28 yards for a touchdown to stretch the lead to 10 points.
For good measure, Edmond Boateng sacked Webb and forced a fumble that Koron Crump jumped on to snuff out the Golden Bears’ final possession of the night.
“I’m going to tell you this, we’re not going to face any tougher offenses than this,” Graham said following the game. “We just faced number-one and number-two in the country, so that’s got to prepare us and help us.”
There’s not exactly a break in the schedule coming up for the Devils, as they’ll travel to USC to face a 1-3 Trojans team then return home to Tempe to host UCLA, who has already tasted defeat twice on the season.
But at least those teams don’t run their offenses at a break-neck pace that can make things hard on a defense. Cal ran 54 plays in the first half alone Saturday night, a number that certainly had an effect on ASU’s defensive unit.
The first third of the Pac-12 season has been, in a word, weird. Only four teams in the conference are still undefeated — Washington and Stanford (who both survived Saturday scares) in the North and Utah and Arizona State in the South.
Graham is right. You can pull your hair out over the Sun Devils’ defensive statistics, but the fact remains this team has done just enough on that side of the ball to win games.
