Fresno State's poor run defense puts team in deep trouble in Mountain West

Factor in all of the warts, the inexperience and a lack of ready depth in the defensive and offensive lines. Project some big plays allowed, some poor tackling and growing pains at the quarterback position.

Fresno State still figured to have a chance to make a run at a Mountain West championship, certainly a West Division title, because the Bulldogs could stop the run or at least slow it sufficiently to win some football games. It is a formula that has worked for them in the past in MW play and would again, particularly this season when the level of quarterback play in the conference has dipped so precipitously. Seven MW teams are ranked in the bottom half of the Football Bowl Subdivision in passing efficiency with an eighth pretty much right in the middle at No. 64, and the teams that are ranked lower trail by at least 20 and as many as 42 ratings points.

Six of those teams are 103rd or lower.

But after a 49-23 loss at San Jose State, that all appears dubious. If the Bulldogs can’t stop the run they are in deep, and against the Spartans they couldn’t stop the power run or their counter or outside zone game.

“We’ve been able to lean on our run defense – we have a package that has been pretty good,” coach Tim DeRuyter said. “Unfortunately, we’ve gotten away from that a little bit because we’re seeing so many one-back teams; the two-back stuff is a little foreign to our guys and we did not adjust very well.”

San Jose State consequently gutted the Bulldogs, beat them up physically in churning out 291 rushing yards, which would be 328 if removing from the equation six sacks for a minus-23 yards and one team rush for a minus-14 yards when the Spartans’ punter dropped a snap and was tackled.

Tyler Ervin, who had never carried the football more than 22 times in a game, lugged it 42 times. Ervin, who had never rushed for more than 146 yards in a game, churned out a school-record 300.

The success running the ball just made the Spartans’ play-action pass game more effective.

And the Spartans gave every team in the conference a blueprint starting with San Diego State, which is next up on the Bulldogs’ schedule and runs a similar two-back power run game.

The Aztecs have had problems in the passing game – their quarterbacks have completed only 43.2 percent of their passes (48 of 111) and have a passing rating of 96.49.

They have not run the ball particularly well yet, either. But they do have one of the better running backs in the conference in Donnel Pumphrey, and that could be enough to drop Fresno State to 0-2 in conference play, which hasn’t happened since 2004 when it lost its first three after a 3-0 nonconference run that included wins at Washington and at No. 13 Kansas State.

The Spartans were inconsistent throwing the football in their first three games, but they identified an advantage and exploited it. The first three games of the season they ran more one-back in a victory over FCS New Hampshire and losses at Air Force and Oregon State, but the Bulldogs got a double dose of two-back sets. The Spartans ran the football on 58 of 81 plays from scrimmage (71.6 percent), which is the most rushing plays they have had in a game going back through the 2008 season and also their highest run to pass percentage. And, this is a team and program that had topped 60 percent only 12 times in those 89 games that cover seasons led by three head coaches and six offensive coordinators.

It hasn’t always been that way.

Fresno State has won 20 of its first 27 games against MW teams under DeRuyter and rushing defense was a key in several of them. In six of those wins the Bulldogs held their opponent to less than 100 rushing yards, and in a seventh allowed only 106 yards on 46 plays (2.3 ypp). A breakdown …

Rushing yards allowed in wins …

▪ 2012: 168.4 ypg, 3.9 ypp

▪ 2013: 143.8 ypg, 3.7 ypg

▪ 2014: 177.0 ypg, 4.3 ypg

▪ 2015: NA

▪ Totals: 160.7 ypg, 3.9 ypp

Rushing yards allowed in losses …

▪ 2012: 215.0 ypg, 5.1 ypp

▪ 2013: 159.0 ypg, 3.5 ypp

▪ 2014: 233.3 ypg, 5.4 ypp

▪ 2015: 291.0 ypg, 5.0 ypp

▪ Totals: 228.3 ypg, 5.0 ypp

It should be noted the rushing yards allowed in those victories are inflated a bit by three games against New Mexico and one against Air Force, option running teams that generated 77.7 percent, 73.1 percent and 81.4 percent and 65.2 percent, 71.5 percent and 75.5 percent of their total offense rushing the football in 2014, ’13 and ‘12.

The chilling thing for the Bulldogs is San Jose State was the stronger, more physical team, which just doesn’t sound right (San Jose State?), but in this game there is no denying it. There is no quick fix for that. Fresno State is in development up front, rotating in players that are still a year or two away in their physical development from making a lasting impression on opposing running backs.

DeRuyter and defensive coordinator Nick Toth will have to adjust.

“We have different schemes that we think fit our guys and the question all the time is, ‘Are we asking our guys to do something that they’re not capable of doing?’ ” DeRuyter said.

“If not, then you have to look at either changing the guy or changing the scheme. I thought that at times we executed well but at times we didn’t. We got hit in a blitz or two that was something we thought should be effective, but we didn’t execute it well.”

Three of the Bulldogs’ remaining Mountain West games are against teams ranked in the top four in the conference in rushing offense, every one averaging more than 200 yards per game in Air Force (No. 1 at 367.0), UNLV (No. 3 at 238.5) and Nevada (No. 4 at 210.5).

They don’t all run similar offenses, but by the time those games roll around there aren’t going to be many secrets how best to attack the Bulldogs’ defense.

“Obviously, San Diego State plays that style so we’ll see it from them,” DeRuyter said. “Utah State will run some two-back. People, they watch tape, they’ll see how teams are able to effectively move the ball against you and they’ll try to incorporate it into what they do.

“Some people just run what they run, but others are going to look and see what hurts you.”

Et Cetera – The Bulldogs generated only 247 yards of total offense, their lowest output since DeRuyter and offensive coordinator Dave Schramm installed the up-tempo spread. Fresno State has been held to less than 300 yards three times now – the Bulldogs had 254 yards in a loss to USC in the 2013 Las Vegas Bowl and 255 yards in a loss to Rice in the 2014 Hawaii Bowl. The 247 yards is the fewest since a loss to Cal in 2011, when they rushed for 68 yards, passed for 150 yards and had 218 total yards.

▪ With the Spartans converting 7 of 10 third-down plays into first downs, Fresno State has now allowed its three FBS opponents to extend drives on 67.4 percent of their third-down plays (29 of 43). That is the worst mark in the Mountain West by 18.7 percentage points (Wyoming is 11th at 48.7 percent) and in the nation by 4.6 percentage points (North Texas at 62.8 percent).

▪ Since 2007, there has been only one FBS team to allow subdivision opponents to convert at least 60 percent of their third-down plays into first downs over a season – Air Force in 2013 at 60.1 percent.

▪ The Bulldogs almost generated as many yards on their eight kickoff returns (208) as they did on their 62 plays from scrimmage (247) with Da’Mari Scott returning one kickoff 66 yards and Jamire Jordan taking one back 47 yards. Both returns marked career highs for Scott and Jordan.

▪ Fresno State in its three games against FBS competition is averaging 1.0 points in the first quarter. Seven teams have yet to score in the first quarter – Arizona State, Tulane, Louisiana-Monroe, Louisiana-Lafayette, Utah State, Arkansas State and Boston College.

▪ Spartans’ quarterback Joe Gray started the game hitting his first six passes, missed, then hit his next eight throws, missed, and then hit his next six passes. He was 20 of 23 (87 percent) in the game for 252 yards and three touchdowns without an interception and his passing efficiency rating was 222.04. That is the highest Fresno State had allowed since its last trip to San Jose in 2013 when David Fales completed 38 of 46 passes (82.6 percent) for 577 yards and six touchdowns without a pick. His rating was 231.01.

▪ There have been only two teams in Mountain West history to win at least a share of a conference championship after losing its first league game – Colorado State was one of three 5-2 teams at the top of the conference in 1999 after opening with a loss at BYU and San Diego State was one of three 7-1 teams in 2012 after opening with a loss at Fresno State.

This story was originally published September 27, 2015 at 9:52 PM with the headline "Fresno State's poor run defense puts team in deep trouble in Mountain West."