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The No. 21 Colorado Buffaloes (4-0, 1-0) defeated the Arizona State Sun Devils (3-2, 1-1) 28-21 Saturday afternoon, handing ASU another close road loss.
The Sun Devils battled, trading touchdowns with the Buffs throughout the afternoon in a game that wasn’t over until Colorado senior Travon McMillian rushed for a first down under the two-minute mark with ASU out of timeouts.
“I thought we had some momentum early,” head coach Herm Edwards said. “Then they got two scores and that was about the game.”
The two sides mirrored each other in the first half, as sophomore running back Eno Benjamin (20 att, 96 yds in first half) had a pair of touchdown runs for ASU. But each time, the Buffaloes countered with their own sophomore weapon- Laviska Shenault.
The 6’2, 220-lb wideout scored on a rushing and receiving touchdown and accrued 63 yards of offense in the half, which included several conversions on third and fourth down.
“He is a fabulous player,” Edwards said of Shenault. “There was times that we had him doubled and he still caught the football. You got to give him credit, they found a way to get him the ball.”
The second half looked like it would be the same story, as Wilkins hit redshirt sophomore Frank Darby on a perfectly placed deep ball for a 40-yard touchdown, putting ASU ahead 21-14 right out of the break.
Colorado took less than two minutes to answer though, marching 75 yards on five plays culminating in a 30-yard touchdown strike to Shenault from junior quarterback Steven Montez, who led him perfectly on a go route that beat redshirt sophomore cornerback Chase Lucas.
From there, the ASU offense was stagnant, in large part due to junior star receiver N’Keal Harry’s injury on a punt return with eight-and-a-half minutes left in the third quarter.
The Sun Devil offense was shut out from that point on, and even though Harry returned to the game he was not targeted after grabbing three catches for 62 yards in the first half.
“The kid wanted to be out there so bad- fighting tears in his eyes,” senior quarterback Manny Wilkins said. “Somebody has to just show him the reality of it that if you’re pretty hurt and you can’t do what you do then it’s not worth going out there and hurting yourself more.”
The Buffaloes took their first lead of the game in the last minute of the third quarter. A 51-yard throw from Montez to sophomore wideout KD Nixon on a go route down the sideline, again beating Lucas, set up a one-yard run into the end zone for Shenault, who ended up scoring all four of the team’s touchdowns.
Wilkins had a response on the first play of the next drive, hitting Darby on a post route over the middle for a 72-yard play that got ASU three yards from the end zone.
But the Sun Devils squandered the opportunity, as Wilkins took a sack from sophomore Mustafa Johnson on 2nd & goal that backed ASU up to the 10 and eventually turned it over when a back-corner jump ball to 6-8 sophomore receiver Curtis Hodges was batted down on 4th & goal.
“That sack in the gold zone there, at the (two)-yard line I can’t do that,” Wilkins said. “We need to get points there and that’s on me.”
Colorado controlled the game from there, using its ground game to keep possession of the ball for the final 13:25 of action- save for ASU’s final offensive drive, a three-and-out that consumed all of 51 seconds.
The key to Colorado’s victory was its ability to convert on third downs in the second half. The Buffs were 5 for 9 on such opportunities in the final 30 minutes, in addition to going 2 for 2 on fourth down conversions- both in the first half.
For comparison, ASU went 0 for 5, not including the failed 4th and goal, after going 5 for 6 on third downs in the first half.
“I think Colorado at halftime made great adjustments,” Benjamin said. “They started bringing a lot of corner blitzes that we weren’t seeing.”
“We had some opportunities, just didn’t cash in on them,” Edwards said. “They cashed in on their opportunities and that’s why the game is what it looks like.”
Colorado improves to 5-0 overall and 2-0 in the Pac-12 with the win, while ASU falls to 3-3 and 1-2 in conference play.
The Sun Devils return to action Thursday, Oct. 18 at 6 p.m. when it hosts No. 14 Stanford.
