MEMPHIS - The way in which both teams left the field for halftime on Saturday told the story better than anything else.
Arkansas State trudged toward its locker room in the north end zone, trailing 24-7 after 30 minutes of frustrating offensive play coupled with a defense that couldn’t stop Memphis’ running game.
Memphis, on the other hand, huddled its entire team at the 40-yard line, then sprinted to its locker room on the other side of the stadium to the loudest cheers of an afternoon in front of 36,279 at the Liberty Bowl.
Halftime came after a beating from Memphis that was so thorough and sound that there wasn’t much ASU could do in the second half to make a difference in what ended up being a 31-7 loss.
In what was likely the final meeting for some time in the nearly century-old series , the Tigers (1-2) needed less than six minutes to grab a two-touchdown lead and used a variety of misdirection plays to gain a bulk of their 329 yards rushing in handing ASU its most lopsided loss in the series since a 38-9 pasting in 1997.
Memphis also held ASU (2-2) to a season-low 255 total yards and tied a school record by sacking quarterback Adam Kennedy seven times.
“We knew in this game there would be an intensity level that we had to go out there and make sure that we were matching early on,” ASU Coach Bryan Harsin said. “It all comes down to how you start in the football game.”
Under second-year Coach Justin Fuente, Memphis combined for 587 total yards and 29 points in losses to Duke and at Middle Tennessee. The Tigers topped those points inone afternoon Saturday, and almost matched the total yards (505).
“Happy,” said Fuente of his players. “And they deserve to be happy, those kids have put in a lot of work and had a rough week. I am so proud of them.”
The onslaught started on Memphis’ first drive.
Redshirt freshman quarterback Paxton Lynch guided the Tigers 77 yards, and Brandon Hayes’ 6-yard touchdown run put Memphis up 7-0 with 12:01 left in the first quarter. After an ASU punt, Lynch led the Tigers on a 63-yard drive in 4 plays capped by a touchdown pass to Alan Cross from 6 yards for a 14-0 lead with 6:39 left in the quarter.
What followed were a series of run plays in which Lynch took a shotgun snap, dropped back, then handed the ball to a back heading the opposite direction.
Hayes ran it once for 32 yards, and freshman Marquise Warford had a 63-yard run on a similar play later in the half. His 47-yarder set up a 23-yard Jake Elliot field goal that put Memphis up 17-7 with 9:52 left in the second quarter.
Sam Craft added a 5-yard touchdown run on a drive set up by a 26-yard punt return by Keiwone Malone to go up 24-7 with 5:25 left before intermission.
Warford finished with 173 yards rushing on 11 carries and Hayes had 114 yards on 18 carries, the first time Memphis had two runners eclipse 100 yards in the same game in five seasons.
“They were pretty good backs, but we have to get better at tackling, back to the fundamentals,” defensive tackle Ryan Carrethers said. “It’s the whole defense. We’ve just got to play better, have more recognition, more discipline.”
An ASU offense that had averaged 544.3 yards for its first three games couldn’t keep up with Memphis on the ground.
ASU’s only scoring drive came in the first quarter when Kennedy led the Red Wolves 59 yards in 6 plays, capped by a 14-yard touchdown pass to J.D. McKissic in which the sophomore jumped from the Memphis 5 over a defender to make it 14-7.
ASU then punted on three consecutive possessions, Kennedy threw his first interception of the season on the fourth, and a drive stalled as the half ended.
Kennedy, who was 18 of 27 passing for 145 yards, said the Tigers regularly got pressure with just a three- or four-man rush and dropped linebackers into the flats - areas where he usually completes passes.
“Rough day,” Kennedy said. “It just seems like a play here, or a play there was negative and it was putting us behind the chains. I felt like we were playing behind the chains the whole night, and it’s just hard to play a game like that.”
That scheme made it so Memphis’ pass rush relied mostly on its defensive line - and they came through. Five of Memphis’ seven sacks came from a defensive linemen, including 2 1/2 from defensive end Martin Ifedi and two from tackle Terry Redden.
Center Bryce Giddens credited the pressure to Memphis showing blitz pre-snap, then pressuring its front four.
“They game-planned us up,” Giddens said. “Nobody has done that to us this year so far. Something we’ve got to learn, we’ll watch film, we’ll make corrections.”
ASU’s last chance to get back in the game came on its second possession of the third quarter, when it increased its tempo to a pace it hadn’t played during the game.
Kennedy’s 20-yard pass helped get ASU to the Memphis 31, but Fredi Knighten threw an incompletion on third and 4, and Kennedy was stopped for no gain on fourth down.
Two possessions later, Warford’s 16-yard run gave Memphis a 31-7 lead with 2:15 left in the third quarter.
Afterward, Harsin wouldn’t put blame on a defense that has allowed almost 1,200 yards in its last two games, or an offense that was held to a season low output.
“It’s the entire football team,” he said. “Overall, we’re not going to point fingers. We have to do a better job as a team, and that starts with me.”
SATURDAY’S GAMES Jacksonville St. 32, Georgia St. 26, OT Baylor 70, La.-Monroe 7 Memphis 31, Arkansas State 7 La.-Lafayette 35, Akron 30 W. Kentucky 58, Morgan St. 17 Texas Tech 33, Texas State 7 Mississippi State 62, Troy 7
Sports, Pages 23 on 09/22/2013