By James Romo for DieHardDevil.com

The intensity was thick enough to cut with a knife prior to kickoff on Saturday night.  From the moment you passed through the gate entering Sun Devil Stadium, it was evident that this was going to be a good night in Tempe.  The Sun Devils came out firing on all cylinders, and Utah had no response for what was a relentless bombing campaign on their defense, and a good old fashioned trip to the woodshed for their offense.  All of Sun Devil Nation was curious to see how this team would respond and rebound after a very tough road loss last week against Missouri.  That question was answered early and often as ASU jumped out to a 21-0 lead in the first quarter.

OFFENSE

Taylor Kelly looked like a cold-blooded assassin against a Utah team that prides itself on their national #15 ranked defense.  He finished the game completing 19 of his 26 passes for 326 yards, three touchdowns, and no interceptions.  Not only has he reached the 1,000 yards passing mark for the season, he also currently sits in 1^st place in the Pac-12 and 9th place nationally in pass efficiency.  One can’t help but to imagine what those numbers would look like if he’d had better production from his receiving core prior to Saturday night.  As impressive as his numbers are, it’s the attention to detail that he continues to play with that continues to stand out.  He does a great job of carrying out ball fakes, has improved his footwork tremendously from the spring, and was even caught looking off defensive backs, something that was sorely lacking by all three quarterbacks during the QB position battle before the season.  On Saturday, it was going to be imperative to have a big play threat emerge from the inexperienced group of receivers going into conference play, and Rashad Ross responded with what was hopefully his breakout game after a very difficult outing last week.  He finished the night with 5 grabs for 87 yard including a catch and run (complete with some shiftiness) for 38 yards and a touchdown to open up the scoring on ASU’s opening drive.  Alonzo Agwuenu had his first catch as a Sun Devil for 19 yards that was hopefully a small glimpse of more to come from him.  ASU will need his size and speed going forward against several talented secondaries in the Pac-12.  Jamal Miles got his downfield receiving game going with four catches for 59 yards.  Kevin Ozier also flashed some big play ability on a 59 yard reception showing good body control during the catch and run.  Chris Coyle also contributed 62 yards on five catches and is proving to be an extremely valuable weapon who creates headaches for opposing Defensive Coordinators.  One of the keys to the game for ASU was to stretch the field with vertical pass routes in order to open the short to intermediate passing lanes.  Coyle benefited from Ozier and Ross running safeties off, leaving him able to find the soft spots in the Utah secondary.

Taylor Kelly is starting to spread his wings at QB. (Photo by Peter Vander Stoep for DieHardDevil.com)

The power running game is still all but non-existent, but DJ Foster was able to slash the Utah defense for 70 yards on ten carries.  He only had one catch on the day, but it went for 26 yards.  As productive as Foster has been at running back, I can’t help but to think that they’d rather have him lined up in the slot with either Cameron Marshall or Marion Grice getting the nod for the between the tackles carries.  Marshall had another game of limited touches, but he is proving to be lethal catching balls out of the backfield.  He only had seven carries for 14 yards and a TD, but he caught three passes for 30 yards and another TD (in which Kelly did a great job of looking off defenders).  Enough can’t be said for the play of the offensive line in pass protection on Saturday.  The Ute’s front seven have been the strength of a team picked by many to challenge USC for the Pac-12 South Division crown.  All-America candidate Utah defensive tackle Star Lotulelei was held in check for most of the game being limited to five tackles and not affecting the ASU passing game in the manner that he destroyed the BYU O-line just a week ago.  Jamil Douglass had another great game being matched up against another NFL draft pick.

DEFENSE

The biggest key to the game for the Sun Devil defense was to contain Utah running back John White.  ASU was able to hold the Ute running game to 2.4 yards per carry.  Playing with huge heart and fierce competitiveness, Will Sutton continues to absolutely be unblockable whether he’s beating O-lineman with quickness or bull rushing his way into disrupting offensive plays and routinely putting quarterbacks on the turf.  Although he was only credited with four tackles and half a sack, he had another monster night disrupting just about everything Utah wanted to do on offense.  Another important key for a Sun Devil win in this game was going to be improved tackling.  Tackles were made on first contact throughout the game as compared to last weekend in Missouri.  Brandon Magee was a wrecking ball against the Ute rushing attack both forcing a fumble, and recovering a Chris Young caused fumble.  Young has turned out to be more than advertised this season as the Western States Football League Defensive Player of the Year in 2011 out of Arizona Western CC.  Young had eight tackles with 2.5 for loss including 1.5 sacks.  In John Hays’ 11 starts as the Ute QB, I doubt that he’s seen that much pressure from so many different defensive positions in his young career.  If Young and Magee weren’t attacking Hays and White relentlessly, Carl Bradford (2.5 tackles for loss and a sack) and Junior Onyeali (highlight reel, power sack) were bringing plenty of noise off the edges.  To throw a little bit more salt in the Ute’s wounds, Steffon Martin was seen in the backfield as a result of either Jaxon Hood or big Mike Pennell tying up interior lineman.

The Sun Devil defense protected the “House” against Utah. (Photo by Peter Vander Stoep for DieHardDevil.com)

Although the big early lead didn’t force Utah into changing their game plan to a heavy passing attack, it did allow the ASU front seven to pin their collective ears back and spend a lot of time in the Ute backfield.  When Utah did attempt to pass, they were only able to hit for short passes into the flat as the secondary was stellar in coverage giving up only 117 yards on 16 attempts.  Keelan Johnson came up with his first pick of the season (a by product of Sutton’s pressure on Hays), a few more bone-jarring hits, and remained sure in his tackling.  Deveron Carr and Osahon Irabor completely shut down the two top Utah receivers not giving up a single reception to either Dres Anderson or DeVonte Christopher.  Irabor has been a monster at his boundary corner position, and Carr looks to be his old shut-down corner self while (knock on wood) remaining healthy this season.  ASU now ranks 5th in the nation in passing defense allowing a mere 139.8 yards per game in the air.  Skeptics will continue to point to the Sun Devils solely facing backup quarterbacks in their first four games.  And I’ll continue to contend that you can only play against who they put in front of you, and this defense has been dominant.

Don’t look now, but the Arizona State Sun Devils currently occupy the early top spot in the Pac-12 South as they prepare to venture into Strawberry Canyon where they haven’t won since 1997 against Cal.  With a new coaching staff leading and preparing a Sun Devil team with a new attitude and perspective, ASU fans are beginning to have higher expectations for victory each and every week.  And that’s how strong programs are built over time.  Saturday at Cal will be another opportunity for the 2012 Sun Devils to “Prove It” to Sun Devil Nation.