How WSU plans to cope with pressure
This is the second part of our two-part series in which we look at the concept of "pressure" and how it relates to WSU. For part one, click here.
The chaos starts the instant Luke Falk takes the snap from the center, and in the fog of grunts and limbs the Washington State quarterback has to go through his reads, find a receiver and deliver the football, all in 3 1/2 seconds or less.
That’s if he’s lucky and everything went according to plan.
Three-and-a-half seconds will be a luxury this weekend against an Arizona State defense that prioritizes forcing quarterbacks to make quick decisions.
The ASU defense is the ideological culmination of an idea that began in the NFL (college teams usually drive innovation in football). The “red-dog” was named after Red Ettinger, a linebacker for the New York Giants in the late 40s.
Ettinger made his name by running at the quarterback in passing situations, forcing this passer to take his eyes off the plays developing downfield to deal with the hellion in his facemask.
Chuck Drulis came up with the idea of having safeties blitz and Bill Arnsparger came up with the idea of a zone blitz, in which defenders appear to cover receivers for a second before rushing at the passer after the offensive line thinks it has accounted for everyone.
Todd Graham, the head coach and defensive coordinator at ASU, does it all, all of the time.
According to data provided to The Oregonian last week by Pro Football Focus, the Sun Devils blitzed extra pass rushers on 53.2 percent of all pass plays prior to their game against the Ducks. The national average entering the week was 26.3 percent.
Opposing quarterbacks, according to The Oregonian, had just 2.3 seconds to throw. The Sun Devils rank No. 2 in the country with 9.5 tackles for loss per game.
“They mix it around and they have different schemes and bring different people at different times,” WSU head coach Mike Leach said. “They’re aggressive. They do a good job as far as bringing people.”
ASU has three more quarterback sacks than any other Pac-12 defense. Yet none of its pass rushers has more than 4.5 sacks or ranks in the conference’s top five in sacks accumulated.
That’s because while the Sun Devils often blitz with the middle linebacker in their preferred 4-3 defensive alignment, ASU also mixes in blitzes from its cornerbacks, safeties. Basically anybody on the defense is likely to become a pass-rusher on a given play.
“They come from everywhere, everywhere almost every down,” WSU running back Jamal Morrow said. “We’ve got to be good with our eyes, hear what the line calls and we’re not going to let nobody touch Luke this game.”
With so many potential blitzers, stopping the extra rushers will be more of a team effort than usual. Leach considers sacks to be just as often the fault of the quarterback as the offensive line. The most important thing for combating ASU’s pressure is Falk’s ability to recognize the blitzes, stay poised and operate quickly and efficiently.
The WSU running backs will have to help out Falk by buying time as blockers and by providing receivers for quick passes out of the backfield, taking advantage of ASU’s blitz by running to the vacated space.
The offensive line will have fewer opportunities to double team defensive linemen and has a more difficult mental task to anticipate blitzes and maintain its protection. That starts in the middle, with center Riley Sorenson.
"It starts with the center," offensive line coach Clay McGuire said. "We need to get the right offensive line calls to make sure we're blocking the right people. That's the main thing."
If Sorenson is able to account for all the pass rushers, and the offensive linemen and running backs ably block, and the wide receivers get open in less than 2.3 seconds, and Falk makes correct reads and delivers the ball on time, then the pressure shouldn't effect the Cougars.
“It’s one of those games where if the center’s doing his job, pointing out who he’s got, it’s just easy as that,” Cougars right tackle Cole Madison. “It’s just a communication game, that’s all it is. If we communicate up front, we’re going to pick up the blitz.”
