ASU closes out upset of Utah
Sun Devils dominant in 4th quarter of win
Earlier this week, ASU defensive coordinator Danny Gonzales talked about his team’s failure to put a team away when it had a lead. The result has been a lot of close games, many of which have not gone in the Sun Devils’ favor.
Well the Sun Devils left no doubt this time, surging past No. 16 Utah 38-20 Saturday at Sun Devil Stadium in a Pac-12 South showdown that has further muddied the conference picture.
ASU (5-4, 3-3) led 21-20 heading into the final quarter then outscored the favored Utes (6-3, 4-3) 17-0 in the final stanza to blow the game open.
It was unlike last week when the Sun Devils jumped out to a 24-7 lead on USC only to give up 21 straight points, although they eventually retook the lead and held on.
“We told ourselves throughout the week that no matter what when we came in at halftime we needed the energy in the locker room,” senior quarterback Manny Wilkins said. “We needed to be positive about everything and come out swinging. The defense did a hell of a job getting a turnover. I turned the ball right back over or else we would’ve been really rolling. But I think we performed up to what we wanted to.”
Once again it was ASU’s marquee players delivering, perhaps none more impressive then junior wide receiver N’Keal Harry, who had nine receptions for 161 yards and three touchdowns.
The longest was from 61 yards and extended ASU’s lead to 28-20 in the opening seconds of the final quarter. Kyle Williams threw a crushing block to spring Harry for the last 25 yards. A defender grabbed Harry by the ankle at the 5 but he reached the ball across the goal line while falling to the ground.
His second-best play came on ASU’s next possession and went for a 35-yard gain that set up a 21-yard field goal by Brandon Ruiz that made it 31-20. Harry caught a short pass from Wilkins and escaped a would-be tackler that had him by an ankle, twisted away from two more tacklers, then reversed field before being forced out of bounds.
It was hardly routine for most players but Edwards has seen those moves so many times he isn’t surprised.
“There he goes again. That’s what he does,” Edwards said of his thoughts watching Harry on that play. “What I tend to worry about is no one clipping when he’s coming back across the field. Our guys did a good job on that.”
The 31-20 deficit proved too much for the visitors to overcome, especially with starting quarterback Tyler Huntley on the bench with a broken collarbone.. He left with 5:41 left in the third after being pressured with the pocket collapsing around him.
Freshman Jason Shelly entered in relief but the Utes missed the dynamic Huntley adds to the offense with his running and playmaking ability.
Eno Benjamin put the punctuation mark on the victory with a 44-yard touchdown run with 4:12 to play that made it 38-20. He finished with 175 yards on 27 carries, marking the sixth time he has run for more than 100 yards. It also boosted him to 1,113 yards on the season.
It was one of the better defensive efforts for the Sun Devils. Utah came in with four straight wins in a stretch where they averaged 40 points a game but were held to 20 points and 325 total yards.
Utah standout Zack Moss was held to 128 yards on 18 tries but the Utes had to abandon the running game when they got behind.
The ASU defense managed three interceptions, equaling the total it had in the previous eight games combined.
The interceptions came from Aashari Crosswell, Merlin Robertson and Kobe Williams with the one by Crosswell the most spectacular. It came after ASU had scored to take a 7-0 lead and the Utah offense was on the field for the first time.
The Utes worked the ball down to their 48 and faced second and 3. Huntley lofted the ball toward the end zone and it deflected off the chest of intended receiver Jaylen Dixon and into the hands of Crosswell who ran it back 47 yards.
Seven plays later, the Sun Devils went up 14-0 on a 3-yard pass from Wilkins to Harry.
The Pac-12 South is a tight race but the win gives ASU the chance to control its own destiny. ASU has UCLA at home next week and closes out with road games at Oregon and Arizona.
Utah entered Saturday as the South frontrunner, the only team with two losses.
“We didn’t play well and a lot of that is due to Arizona State. They’re a good football team,” Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said. “It was the first time in a long time that we got pushed around the line of scrimmage. Their offensive line pushed our defensive line around. We turned the ball over on offense three times and getting pushed around the line of scrimmage, that was really our own doing. After four weeks of playing very well in all three phases we didn’t play particularly well in any phase this afternoon.”