Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
ASU coach eyes fourth-quarter play
JONESBORO — Two games don’t make a trend, but Arkansas State University Coach Blake Anderson has identified a singular issue in his team’s past two losses — an inability to finish.
The Red Wolves (3-4, 1-2 Sun Belt) have played poorly in their past two games, but they can say they were in the game in each fourth quarter.
On Oct. 5 against Georgia State, despite giving up 722 yards of offense and falling behind 21-0, ASU trailed 38-35 with 10:30 left before falling 52-38. On Thursday against Louisiana-Lafayette, despite trailing 24-10 at halftime, ASU rallied to pull within 24-20 after a trick-play touchdown with 11:35 remaining in the fourth quarter.
But then came the lategame struggles — the defense gave up two consecutive touchdowns, the offense turned it over on downs and then threw an interception — and ASU lost 37-20.
“It really just comes down to they finished better than we did,” Anderson said Monday.
This wasn’t the case three weeks ago. On Sept. 28 at Troy in the Sun Belt
opener, the Red Wolves finished. ASU and Troy were tied 31-31 at the half, but the Red Wolves pulled out a 5043 victory.
“No. 1, [we’re] not the same team. It’s a different team,” Anderson said of the difference between Sept. 28 and now. “We’re plugging new guys in and doing some things differently to try to overcome some of the injuries that we’ve had.
“The opponent’s different, too. We’ve played two teams that I think are playing better ball right now than Troy, to be honest with you.
“It’s not conditioning. We had plenty of juice. It’s just [we] didn’t make the plays, not disciplined enough, not detailed enough in some areas maybe. Maybe guys just still are not completely sure what their role is or what their job is in areas, lack of experience, all the above. But we’re there two weeks in a row with the opportunity to finish and just couldn’t get it done.”
If the Red Wolves are going to claim a ninth consecutive bowl bid, they’re going to need to finish off close games.
ASU’s struggling, bangedup defense showed some life at times Thursday, despite surrendering 37 points and 496 yards. In the first and third quarters, the defense gave up a combined seven points and 145 yards while forcing a turnover.
“I thought we were a little bit more aggressive,” ASU defensive coordinator David Duggan said. “I thought our linebackers played downhill a little bit better. We attacked the ball with a little more confidence, and obviously we’ve got some bugs we got to fix.”
A key reason for the defensive improvement was a switch from a four-man to a three-man front, allowing ASU to play with one less defensive tackle since the team’s depth at that position has been hit hard with injuries.
Anderson said Monday that the change is “the best answer moving forward” for the defense, although Duggan later said ASU may go back to four down linemen against Texas State (2-4, 1-1 Sun Belt) this week.
ASU still has a big-play offense, although Louisiana-Lafayette’s defense appeared to figure out a blueprint to limiting the Red Wolves, who were held to their second-lowest point total of the season.
The Ragin’ Cajuns forced ASU into more running looks and played tighter coverage on ASU’s big-play receivers, Omar Bayless and Kirk Merritt. The Red Wolves ran Marcel Murray 35 times for 164 yards — each career highs. ASU held the ball longer than Louisiana-Lafayette and was nearly 50% on third-down conversions.
But the Red Wolves weren’t able to generate as many big plays over the top in the passing game.
“It was the most efficient we’ve been [in the running game],” ASU offensive coordinator Keith Heckendorf said. “Some of the things that we lacked in that game, you look at and you go, well where were all the explosive plays? We count explosive plays as runs of 12 or more and passes of 15 or more, and actually that was our most explosive game all year in terms of the numbers in that regard. We just didn’t have the explosive touchdowns, and that was probably the most frustrating part of the night.”
The Red Wolves host Texas State on Saturday at 6 p.m. in Jonesboro. ASU is an 11-point favorite.
If ASU is to avoid a threegame losing streak and stay in the Sun Belt West division race, Saturday’s game is a must-win.
“I feel like we can go 8-4. I feel like we can win every game. I truly do,” Anderson said. “I don’t care about the injuries. I don’t care what we don’t have. I think we’re capable of that. 8-4 with what we’ve gone through, from the summer to the injuries, would be huge for us.”