Arizona State ends Ducks’ hopes of getting CFP berth

TEMPE, Ariz. — Jayden Daniels’ big night on a primetime national stage helped Arizona State stun No. 6 Oregon 31-28 Saturday night, giving the Sun Devils their biggest victory of the season.

Daniels, a true freshman, completed 22 of 32 passes for 408 yards and three touchdowns and Arizona State intercepted two of Justin Herbert’s passes in the fourth quarter.

Arizona State (6-5, 3-5 Pac12) ended Oregon’s College Football Playoff hopes and its nine-game winning streak. The Sun Devils snapped a fourgame losing streak with their first victory over a top-10 team since Oct. 14, 2017, against then No. 5 Washington.

Oregon (9-2, 7-1) has clinched the Pac-12 North title and a place in the conference championship game. But the Ducks’ best-case scenario is likely the Rose Bowl.

“There’s lot of goals that go into a season. One of them was to have ourselves in a situation coming into this game to be part of every conversation and every kind of championship,” Oregon coach Mario

Cristobal said. “But right now the only conversation that needs to take place for us as a team is the most logical one, that we get back to our process of being 1-0.”

The Sun Devils held on after Oregon, ranked No. 6 in the CFP, scored three touchdowns in a 6:38 span in the wild fourth quarter.

The Ducks, down 24-7 with 8:42 to play, scored twice on three-play drives. It took them 59 seconds to make it 24-14 on Cyrus Habibi-Likio’s touchdown run, then 43 seconds to get Herbert’s scoring pass to Johnny Johnson III.

Then, with Arizona State facing third-and-16, Daniels hit Brandon Aiyuk in stride for an 81-yard touchdown strike with 3:54 to play.

Sun Devils coach Herm Edwards said play action was the key to Daniels’ long completions.

“We just felt that our matchup with our receivers, that we had the ability to beat them. We wanted one-on-one matchups with their corners and we go it,” Edwards said.

Herbert and Johnson connected again for a touchdown with 2:04 left, but Arizona State was able to run out the clock.