Colorado at Arizona State
For some strange reason Colorado put together a defensive scheme that pretty much forced Arizona State Senior QB Jayden Daniels to throw downfield which he was happy to do to the tune of 236 yards while completing over 70% of his passes. And although he didn’t throw a TD pass nor an interception, he moved the chains, got them into the red zone, and oh yeah, rushed 7 times for 75 yards and 2 TD’s. Throw in a couple more, one each by Senior RB Rachaad White and Freshman WR Elijhah Badger and you’ve got a game that was won easily by the Sun Devils. Did I mention that early in the 4th Daniels threw a lateral to Junior WR Ricky Pearsall who, as described by the AP; “fired a return forward pass across the field to White, who ran 30 yards for the touchdown and a 28-10 lead.” Yeah, things were working like a charm for Arizona State last Saturday night.
The teams were pretty close in rushing yards with Colorado outpacing Arizona State 183 yards to 167. But beyond that it was all Sun Devils who had 439 total yards of offense against 250 yards for the Buffaloes. In the air it was 272 yards compared to 67 and 25 first downs against 18 for Colorado. But the biggest difference was where it counted the most—the scoreboard—with Arizona State picking up 1 TD in the air and 4 TD’s on the ground compared to a single rushing TD and field goal by Colorado.
The Sun Devils led from start to finish, ahead 14-3 at the half, scoring once in every quarter and twice in the fourth to win it going away 35-13. It was a good warm up game for them as they head to the Rose Bowl to take on UCLA this next Saturday in a really big South Division match-up that could turn into a shoot-out and high scoring affair. I will say, however, that the 183 yards they allowed on the ground to Colorado means that they’ll most likely be seeing a lot of UCLA’s Junior RB Zach Charbonnet.