(Photo: Brendan OKeeffe/WCSN)
If one watched ESPN’s College GameDay on Saturday morning live from Athens, Georgia, they would have viewed every analyst on the set believing that No. 20 ranked UCLA would blow past unranked Arizona State Football to take the lead of the Pac-12 Conference’s South Division.
After the Sun Devils earned a 42-23 victory over the Bruins at the Rose Bowl on Saturday night, it’s safe to say that all of them were mistaken.
That does not suggest that ASU is in any way a perfect football team. The special teams errors that directly led to six free points for UCLA can be a testament to that. Nevertheless, the Sun Devils played their best game of football in 2021, especially considering the caliber of their opponent.
“For the most part, we kept our composure,” ASU head coach Herm Edwards said.
UCLA came into the Pac-12 South matchup with the highest percentage of running plays in the conference. Additionally, the Bruins were last in the Pac-12 with only five passing plays of 40-plus yards allowed.
That changed Saturday night.
There were numerous momentous plays for ASU that went for massive yardage – the Sun Devils finished with a total of 458 yards. ASU also averaged nine yards per play and earned a second half defensive shutout.
“The Pac-12 is a one-week proposition,” Edwards said.
However, there was one defensive play in particular that essentially secured ASU a victory on Saturday. Early in the fourth quarter, the Bruins had the ball at the Sun Devils’ two-yard line. ASU was up by nine points and UCLA was facing a fourth-and-one. Bruins senior quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson faked a handoff and tried to cut outside but was stopped by ASU freshman linebacker Eric Gentry.
The spectacular plays for the Sun Devils did not start or end with the goal line stand by Gentry, however. Junior wide receiver Ricky Pearsall scored two crucial touchdowns for the Sun Devils. Pearsall’s first touchdown, which tied the game at 17, was a 65-yard catch and run after the Bruins defensive backs were unable to keep up.
The junior wideout’s second touchdown was a 54-yard reception that put the Sun Devils in the lead 24-20. Pearsall ended the night with 132 yards and two touchdowns on three catches. He averaged 33 yards-per-catch and had more total yards on Saturday night than he had in his first four games of the year combined.
Junior quarterback Jayden Daniels completed 13 of 18 passes for 286 yards. Daniels utilized a number of offensive weapons, including a notable returner – sophomore running back DeaMonte Trayanum – who hadn’t played since the season-opener against Southern Utah. Trayanum scored a touchdown and rushed for 62 yards to help contribute to an explosive ASU offense.
ASU’s next opponent is Stanford, who upset No. 3 Oregon on Saturday with a 31-24 overtime win. Both teams are coming off exciting, and in some ways unexpected, victories which leave little room for drawn out celebrations.
“I’m already looking at Stanford on the plane,” Edwards said.
That said, the Sun Devils were the underdog in the conference showdown with UCLA on Saturday, and perhaps that plus-line in Las Vegas was exactly what they needed to become the only Pac-12 team without a conference loss thus far while putting together their most complete performance of 2021 so far.
