The Cougs’ Anthony Gordon’s 466 yards of passing and 3
touchdowns wasn’t enough to hold of Arizona State’s freshman quarterback Jayden
Daniels as he ran in the winning touchdown from 17 yards out with 30 seconds to
play to give the 18th ranked SunDevils the 38-34 win over the
Cougs. “I thought we played extremely
hard, we let them slip through our fingers too many times,” said coach Mike
Leach.
WSU started the game right where they wanted, with a 5 play 66
yard touchdown culminating in a 35 yard strike from Gordon to Travel Harris to
give them the early 7-0 lead. They
followed that up with a Blake Mazza field goal to give the Cougs a 10-0 lead at
the end of the first.
Arizona State’s stand out receiver gave the Cougs fits all game
with 3 touchdowns on 7 receptions for 196 yards. His first touchdown coming on 3rd
and 5 as Daniels found Brandon Aiyuk wide open for a 40-yard touchdown strike
to get the Sundevils on the board. His second touchdown came with the Cougs
leading 17-7. Aiyuk was able to get by
all WSU defenders for an 86 yard touchdown scamper. They aren’t strangers to big pass plays
giving up a 94 yard pass to UCLA in week 4.
“We don’t give up as many base hits as we do home runs,” said Leach.
The Cougs defensive coordinator stepped down last week in a
shock to Cougar nation. Roc Bellantoni,
stepped in and did a great job motivating the defense as they only allowed 23
yards in the first quarter. After that,
it was matching drives and seeing who got the ball last with the greatest
amount of time.
With the score tied at 24, Gordon led an impressive 9 play, 92
yard drive giving Max Borghi a 2-yard touchdown run. Jayden Daniels responded with a beauty of his
own going 84 yards and not even getting to 3rd down. Whatever schemes the Cougs were running
defensively, were discovered after the first quarter because ASU was moving the
ball at will. Daniels finished 363
yards, half of which went to Aiyuk.
Aiyuk was finding ways through the zone defense and getting wide
open, this time for a 33-yard touchdown strike to tie the game at 31 early in
the 4th. The Cougs were able
to make a stop deep in their own end and started with great field position
after a shanked punt gave the Cougs the ball at the ASU 36 yard line midway
through the 4th. After a
holding penalty set them up with a 3rd and 14, the Cougs settled for
a field goal giving WSU a 3-point lead but also leaving 2 minutes on the clock
for Daniels to work with.
Daniels was able to drive the Sun Devils down making an
acrobatic touchdown run. The Cougs had
one last shot from the 40 to throw it into the end zone but Gordon’s pass was
disrupted and the Cougs came up just short.
“As a team, we need to come together, get through this adversity and
find a way to get it done next week,” Gordon said following the loss. The Cougs look to bounce back after their
first 3-game losing streak in 6 seasons facing the Colorado Buffaloes who are
coming off a blowout loss to Oregon. The
game will be at 4 p.m. on ESPN.
