Red Wolves in shutdown mode

Arkansas State’s defense, shown stopping South Alabama’s Terrance Timmons on Oct. 13, has forced seven turnovers in victories against North Texas and Louisiana-Lafayette the past two weeks.
Arkansas State’s defense, shown stopping South Alabama’s Terrance Timmons on Oct. 13, has forced seven turnovers in victories against North Texas and Louisiana-Lafayette the past two weeks.

— North Texas running back Brandin Byrd juked and slithered to the right of a flat-footed Qushaun Lee into a scant space at Apogee Stadium in Denton, Texas, on Saturday.

Arkansas State bandit end Eddie Porter eliminated the remaining room, chasing down the ball carrier and draping himself across Byrd’s back. Wrestling Byrd to the turf, Porter raked his arm down the running back’s chest and punched the ball loose.

Three bounces later, ASU free safety Sterling Young scooped it up and returned it 17 yards to the North Texas 31 with less than three minutes to go in the first half. The turnover set up an Arkansas State scoring drive that was capped by tight end Kedric Murray’s 4-yard touchdown reception for a 30-12 lead on the way to a 37-19 victory.

It was a perfect example of the progress the Red Wolves defense has shown over the past two weeks. ASU held Louisiana-Lafayette and North Texas, two of the Sun Belt Conference’s best rushing offenses, to fewer than 100 yards while forcing 7 turnovers and registering 4 sacks.

ASU (6-3, 4-1 Sun Belt) could use a similar performance Thursday night when it hosts Louisiana-Monroe (6-3, 4-1) at Liberty Bank Stadium.

“It’s guys doing their jobs when the play comes their way,” ASU linebacker Nathan Herrold said. “They don’t rely on anybody else and don’t try to do too much.”

Earlier this season, against Oregon, Nebraska and Memphis, the Red Wolves gave up an average of 475 yards of total offense per game, including an average of 261 rushing yards against the top-10 rushing attacks of the Ducks (No. 2) and Cornhuskers (No. 6).

“We all know we had a problem early in the season stopping the run,” cornerback Chaz Scales said. “That might have been a new system or the people we played, but we’ve gotten better at doing that.”

Outside of a loss to Western Kentucky, when it allowed 243 yards rushing, Arkansas State has sliced those figures significantly. Over the past six games, defensive coordinator John Thompson’s unit has allowed an average of 343.2 total yards per game, including 136.8 on the ground.

“Our front seven is finally coming along,” ASU Coach Gus Malzahn said. “On the back end we’re really youthful, but everybody knows that. You just need to improve every week.”

The Mean Green’s threeback rotation helped muster only 84 yards on 30 carries Saturday — the team’s thirdworst performance of the season and roughly 90 yards less than their season average.

Herrold said the coaching staff challenged the defense to be more physical than North Texas.

“We were physical at the point of attack,” he said. “We didn’t have many missed tackles. We took the right angles. We had good eyes as well. We did what you’re suppose to do.”

The primary catalyst for improvement has been developing a legitimate twodeep rotation, especially at linebacker behind starters Herrold, Lee and Don Jones — the Red Wolves’ three leading tacklers — and along the defensive front.

Tim Starson has emerged as a steady source of pressure at strong defensive end, even if he has only two sacks, and leads the Red Wolves with nine tackles for loss. Tackle Ryan Carrethers has plugged the inside gaps and has 50 tackles, including three for loss.

But the emergence of Porter, who walks up in a 3-4 rush look, has been a critical shift.

Porter, a 6-3, 235-pound transfer from Blinn (Texas) College, has 27 tackles — in-

1 cluding 5 for loss — and 2 /2 sacks on the season since moving into the starting lineup against Alcorn State. Porter ranks ninth on the team in tackles, but he’s first in forced fumbles with four, two of which came in the past two weeks.

“Eddie’s just been fantastic off the edge,” Herrold said. “A lot of times when his name is coming up, it’s because his plays are changing the game. That’s what you want from a guy like him.”

The improvements — even without departed contributors such as Joiner and linebacker Demario Davis — have allowed ASU to mimic its style from last season when it shut off running games and made teams one-dimensional while facing a heavy rush.

Arkansas State ranks third in the Sun Belt in pass defense, giving up 208.9 yards through the air, and it’s tied for second in turnover margin at plus-5.

“We go after teams,” Scales said. “We still blitz, let the linemen free rush. We don’t want to change that, so we have to cover.

“When you really think about it, they’ve just let us go play.”

Sports, Pages 27 on 11/07/2012

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