After a great start including a win against, at the time, No. 11 Michigan State and Stanford and then a very narrow loss to a UCLA team that looks to be the PAC-12’s best this year, the Huskies dropped the ball on the road to an Arizona State that has regrouped under their interim head coach Shaun Aguano after the firing of Herm Edwards. The Sun Devils not only have a new head coach to deal with but they also lost their starting QB, Emory Jones, to injury in the 2nd Qtr of this game. The AP described their back-up like this; “Trenton Bourguet was a fifth-string walk-on four years ago and spent the spring in a walking boot [due to off-season foot surgery] when he wasn’t practicing. The Arizona State quarterback prepared as if he was going to be the starter no matter where he was on the depth chart or how bad his foot hurt — a mentality that paid off in a huge way for the Sun Devils. Called into action after Emory Jones was injured, Bourguet orchestrated Arizona State’s offense to near perfection in a 45-38 victory over No. 21 Washington on Saturday that gave interim coach Shaun Aguano his first victory.”
Connecting on 70% of his passes, Bourguet was 15-of-21 for 182 yards, 3 TD’s and 1 pick. Not playing the entire game his total yards were less than his Washington counterpart, Michael Penix-Jr, who connected 33 times with his receivers for 311 yards. But in spite of throwing for more than 100 yards less he still had three times the TD’s as Penix-Jr never connected in the end zone for the Huskies, instead throwing a pick six late in the 2nd Qtr that put them behind 24-10 at the time. Washington would come right back with a 75 yard, 9 play drive and a TD to pull within seven at the break, 24-17.
Even though Washington had nine more 1st Downs in the game, more Total Yards, greater time of possession, and scored plenty enough points in the 2nd Half to win the game—including three TD’s in a row—their defense couldn’t shut the Sun Devils down who matched them point-for-point. Arizona State Senior RB Xazavian Halladay carried the Sun Devil load on the ground rushing 23 times for 111 yards and 1 TD—only 33 yards less just by himself than Washington’s collective 134 yard total. Sophomore RB Daniyel Ngata picked up the other TD while rushing 4 times for 39 yards.
For the Huskies, Sophomore RB Cameron Davis was a beast in the end zone–while almost single handedly making up for his QB’s inability to score through the air–rushing just 9 times but picking up 77 yards and 3 TD’s. Added to Senior RB Wayne Taulapapa’s and the rushing TD by Penix-Jr, collectively the Huskies had a solid running game, carrying the rock 33 times for 134 yards and 5 TD’s. With five TD’s total for both teams it was the pick six that turned out to be the difference maker in this one.
In spite of Washington being ranked coming in they come out with a conference record of 1-2 along with Arizona State and three other teams in the PAC-12, all of which have very little chance of playing for the conference championship at this point. Right now there are only two undefeated teams, No. 7 USC and No. 11 UCLA at 6-0 with USC leading the PAC-12 due to having one more conference win than any of the other teams. Behind them are No 12 Oregon at 5-1 but also undefeated in conference and No. 20 Utah at 4-2 with a 2-1 conference record. After their loss in the Rose Bowl to USC the Utes will head home for a must-win game against USC. I’ll be surprised if USC comes home from Rice-Eccles Stadium with Lincoln Riley’s unbeaten record intact.