ASU Football: The anatomy of a miracle

(Photo: Lindsey Nelson/WCSN)

Mike Bercovici had never before thrown a desperation toss in a game like he did on Saturday night. Not in his high school career, and certainly not in his collegiate one, which has featured the quarterback spending most of his time on the sideline watching Taylor Kelly run the Arizona State offense.

“I liked to think I’d be good at it,” Bercovici said. As a big-arm, pocket passer, that assumption that he could lob a successful Hail Mary was a logical one, but the junior said he didn’t quite unleash the ball as well as he would have liked.

“I’ll be honest. I didn’t think I got it that far,” Bercovici said. “It looked like a little bit of a duck, but you know what, I just needed to give ourselves a chance.”

He gave the Sun Devils a chance. Or, at least, one Sun Devil had a chance, and that was enough, as Jaelen Strong came down with his tenth reception and third touchdown of the night with a catch right at the goal line that won the game for ASU as time expired.

“I just did what I was coached to do,” Strong said. “Coach [DelVaughn] Alexander talks about attacking the ball. I saw the ball in the air, the first thing I thought was ‘I’m gonna get this’ and I went up and made the play.”

“If you’re throwing it to Jaelen Strong, you’ve got a good chance,” ASU head coach Todd Graham said. “That’s the most incredible moment I’ve had in coaching…that play.”

While Strong caught the ball essentially undefended and untouched, he wasn’t initially sure if he’d be able to get in position to make the play. “At first I thought, ‘I don’t know if can get to it, but I put my head down and kept running and got it.”

He got it in front of a pair of Trojans defenders who never made a play on the ball. USC head coach Steve Sarkisian called it an “awkward Hail Mary” that “floated back to the middle of the field.” While it’s anyone’s guess whether Bercovici’s placement of the ball was intentional or not, the Sun Devils practice that situation every Thursday, according to Graham.

Even then though, Bercovici said that the quarterbacks don’t always uncork the ball quite like he did on Saturday night, as they often “air toss” it to save their arms and weekly practices don’t translate to a high probability of success in that situation.

“I don’t know the percentage, but it’s not too often we complete that pass,” Bercovici said.

With all the praise directed at the passer and the receiver, Bercovici said the real star of the play was right tackle Tyler Sulka who kept a Trojans defender from getting in his face.

“They know we’re not running the ball so they’re coming nice and heavy,” Bercovici said. “[Sulka] did such a great job to give me the extra second to slide right and let it rip. And it didn’t drop.”

It didn’t drop and neither did ASU’s season, as it was saved on a play that is difficult to describe as anything short of a miracle.

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