South Dakota State’s defensive line dominates
BROOKINGS, S.D. – They dominated.
South Dakota State was in the Football Championship Subdivision semifinals for the third time in four seasons but for the first time at home, and any fears they’d come out flat or wilt under the pressure melted away almost immediately.
Yes, the top-seeded Jackrabbits spotted the Delaware Blue Hens the first three points of the game, but behind a relentless defense and efficient offense, SDSU pushed the Colonial Athletic Association champion around the rest of the game Saturday, piling up three times as many points in their 33-3 win than Delaware gave up on average during a previously unbeaten season.
Jacks coaches admitted in the week leading up to the game they were impressed with the Blue Hens’ size and physical style of play, and it was obvious the Hens were confident as well. Then the Jacks whipped them. “We got our asses kicked by a really good football team,” said Delaware coach Danny Rocco. “We thought we could go toe-to-toe with them and we obviously could not. At least not today.”
The Jacks tied a school playoff record with seven sacks, equaling a mark set in 2013 against Northern Arizona. They held Dejoun Lee, the CAA player of the year, to 9 yards rushing on 11 carries. They registered five more tackles for loss in addition to the sacks, giving them a total of 61 yards of negative yardage on those plays. They blocked a field goal attempt and twice stopped the Blue Hens on fourth down, after Delaware entered the game 8-for-8 on fourth-down conversions.
The play of the SDSU defensive line was what stood out the most. Reece Winkelman had 2.5 sacks and eight tackles. Caleb Sanders had two sacks. Quinton Hicks had half a sack and four tackles, Jarod DePriest had a sack and Thomas Stacker notched three tackles, but their effectiveness was, as it has been pretty much all year, a product of the Jacks’ depth across the line, with Ryan Van Marel, Xavier Ward, Randy Keumogne, Tolu Ogunrinde, Cade Terveer and Krockett Krolikowski contributing as well. D-line coaches Christian Smith and Spencer Erickson couldn’t have asked for much more.
The Jacks’ linebackers had a big day, too, with Logan Backhaus and Preston Tetzlaff making 12 tackles each and Adam Bock recording six stops and a sack.
The Jacks brought plenty of pressure, but at times it seemed like they were blitzing more than they actually were because the line was getting such a consistent push. Blue Hens quarterback Noah Henderson was able to complete 18 of 21 passes, but he took a beating and rarely had time to challenge the Jacks’ secondary. When he did, cornerback Don Gardner was there with another strong game.
“It was just relentless effort,” Winkelman said. “We had all 11 hats running to the ball. When you got the momentum going your way everything seems to keep going that way.”