2013 Week 2

The beginning of Saturday's game went as most had expected and Devils' fans feared. The bigger, stronger Badgers just bullied ASU all over the field and this all started in the trenches. The UW road graders cleared paths for large gains on the ground and whenever they passed the ball, the Badger QB had as much time as he needed (on 1 play I rushed 4 against 5 and I literally counted to 5 before the QB threw the ball and he still wasn't pressured). On the flip side, ASU couldn't run the ball no matter how hard they tried and it didn't take long to realize that they couldn't throw down the field either because any pattern that took more than 2 seconds would likely result in a sack. UW ended the game with 6 sacks while ASU didn't register their first sack (they ended with 2) until UW's final drive of the game! Despite the domination in the trenches, once coach Jello realized what absolutely wouldn't work, he started to move the ball on offense and they ended the half only down 17-10.

The second half was all ASU. They found the recipe for moving the ball on offense and while it only resulted in 10 points, they were still able to be productive. It was the ASU defense that was the story however. They started actually forcing a couple of punts and stalling out some Wisconsin drives. When it was all said and done, they would force 2 turnovers during the game (ASU had 0) and pitched a shutout in the 2nd half to salt away the victory. Probably the most telling stat comes from SS McCullen who had 8 tackles in the 1st half as the Wisconsin players would routinely break through the 1st and 2nd levels of defense, forcing him to make the tackle. In the second half, he only had to make 1 tackle.

While no one's stats were really POTG worthy, coach Jello gave the game ball to QB Eubanks who, despite immense defensive pressure every time he dropped back on his 26 passing attempts (17 att, 6 sacks, 3 scrambles), he never turned the ball over. This was of the utmost importance for this game and coach Jello drove that point home all week and Eubanks executed flawlessly. The Devils should have an easier time next week as they host Ohio.