No. 7 Texas Tech at Arizona State
This was a hard fought game that went right down to the wire with Arizona State not taking a 26-22 lead for good until there was less than 30 seconds left in a game that finally dealt a loss to Texas Tech—one of the few undefeated teams still left coming in. You could tell right from the start that the team that was going to come out on top of this one was going to be the one that could grind the hardest and longest. Considering how many points the Red Raider offense had been averaging on the board through seven weeks—2nd in the nation at 47.5—the fact that the Sun Devils held them to four punts the entire first quarter with all but one a three-and-out was really impressive. Arizona State wasn’t exactly kicking the end zone down either being forced to punt their first two possession—one a three-and-out—until they finally got some points on the board with a 34 yard field goal from their Senior Place Kicker Jesus Gomez to go up 3-0 with less than two minutes left in the 1st Qtr. It wouldn’t be the last time that Gomez would have to bail his team out after being unable to solve the Texas Tech red zone defense and get into the end zone.
The Red Raiders were held to a three-and-out their last possession of the 1st Qtr while Arizona State was able to go up 6-0 on their first possession of the 2nd Qtr on another Jesus Gomez field goal—this one from 47 yards out. Finally, on their sixth possession of the game, Texas Tech got up on the board. Left with good field position after the Sun Devils went for but didn’t make a 4th and 1 at their own 45 yard line, the Red Raiders found the end zone just five plays later on a 30 yard TD pass from Freshman QB Will Hammond to Junior WR Coy Eakin going up 7-6 with six minutes left in the half. Ten plays and 66 yards later Arizona State was once again beating their heads against that unyielding Red Raider red zone defensive wall. Trying three times but unable to punch it in sitting 1st and goal from the Texas Tech 4 yard line Gomez got the call once again and with less than two minutes left before the break the Sun Devils were back on top 9-7 going into the locker room.
Arizona State got the ball to start the 3rd Qtr but were unable to double-up, forced to punt just six plays into a drive that never got them past their own side of mid-field. But with an assist from Texas Tech’s QB Will Hammond, who got picked off just three plays into their next possession, the Sun Devils were able to find the end zone seven plays later on a TD pass from Sophomore QB Sam Leavitt to his favorite target Junior WR Jordan Tyson to make it a two possession lead at 16-7 where the scoring stayed through the end of the 3rd Qtr.
Going on a 16 play 69 yard drive that took more than eight minutes off the clock to start the final quarter, Arizona State would once again find themselves down in the Texas Tech red zone. Sitting 1st and goal from the Red Raider 10 yard line but unable to punch it in, Gomez would kick his fourth field goal of the game—this one from 28 yards out and giving the Sun Devils a 19-7 lead. On their second possession of the quarter the Red Raiders would close the gap to just five points at the end of an 11 play 48 yard drive and Will Hammond TD run to make it 19-14 with less than four minutes left in the game. Holding Arizona State to a three-and-out on their next possession the Sun Devil punt was not only short but was run all the way back to their own 12 yard line. Hammond would connect with Reggie Virgil for a TD on their first play from scrimmage and then run it into the end zone himself for a 2-point conversion and a 22-19 lead with just two minutes left in the game. But a 33 yard pass completion combined with a pass interference penalty would have the Sun Devils sitting 1st and goal at the Texas Tech 2 yard line with a little over 30 second left. Leavitt would run for a yard and then Junior RB Raleek Brown would take it home to put Arizona State back on top 26-22 with just 25 seconds left. The Red Raiders made it to within field goal range but they needed a TD and ran out of time 1st and 10 at the ASU 28 yard line.
Still unranked—although that might change after this win—Arizona State currently sits third in the Big-12 Conference Standings behind Top-25 ranked BYU and Cincinnati who do meet near the end of the regular season. But, in addition to Cincinnati potentially losing that game to BYU they will probably also need Utah to beat them as well in a couple of weeks in order to break into that top two. That, and of course, win out from this point on which seems doable looking at their schedule with no upcoming games the rest of the way against currently ranked Top-25 teams. In this one for Arizona State, Sophomore QB Sam Leavitt was 28-of-47 for 319 yards, 1 TD to Junior WR Jordyn Tyson, and no interceptions. On the ground, Junior RB Raleek Brown led the way with 69 of the team’s 75 yards and the Sun Devils only rushing TD on 19 carries. For Texas Tech, Freshman QB Will Hammond was 22-of-37 for 167 yards, 2 TD’s—1 to Junior WR Coy Eakin and 1 to Senior Reggie Virgil—and 1 interception while also leading the team on the ground with 47 of their 109 yards on 15 carries and their only rushing TD. Arizona State lead in first downs, 21-16; total yards of offense, 394-276; had no turnovers and did a good job of keeping the Red Raiders off the field with just shy of 15 extra minutes time-of-possession.
No. 23 Utah at No.15 BYU
Starting with their first meeting in 1896 these teams have competed against each other about 100 times. I say “about” because Utah claims they’ve met 103 times while BYU says it’s 97. This was not only a Top-25 head-to-head contest and a Big-12 matchup, but more importantly inside the state of Utah it is a rivalry game known as the Holy War between BYU, that is owned and governed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with a 98% LDS student population, and the University of Utah which is a more religiously and culturally diverse public university. Using the Utah count regarding how many times they’ve played, BYU has won 37 of those games while the Utes have come out on top 62 times. That’s only 99, but in addition there were four ties. Even though Utah has won more games BYU has won more lately, winning the last three out of five including this one, 24-to-21.
The scoring started slow with neither team putting points up on the board in the first quarter although it didn’t have to be that way. Sitting 4th and 1 at the BYU 12 yard line at the end of their 12 play 81 yard first possession Kyle Whittingham decided to go for it instead of putting an easy three points up on the board. If you’ve followed Utah football at all you know that Whittingham prides himself in building teams that excel in controlling the line of scrimmage—a point that he insists his opponents understand. So, everybody watching knew that they would be going for it—and they did—but they didn’t make it. After holding Utah to a three-and-out on their next possession BYU would go out in front to start the 2nd Qtr on a 17 yard TD pass from Freshman QB Bear Bachmeier to Senior WR Chase Roberts. Ten plays and 47 yards later Utah would hand the ball back over to the Cougars after once again attempting a 4th down conversion instead of kicking a field goal. With this being a 4th and 7 from the BYU 28 yard line, which would have made it a 45 yard attempt, I understood his reasoning on this one considering that his Freshman Place Kicker Dillon Curtis has only connected on 1 out of 4 from that distance. That said, Curtis has been money from the distance required by the first opportunity when Whittingham decided that sending a message was more important than getting an easy three. The Utah defense would have their coach’s back and hold BYU to a three-and-out, get the ball back and tie the game 7-7 on an 11 yard TD pass from Junior QB Devon Dampier to Senior WR Ryan Davis. BYU would be forced to punt on their next possession after being held to another three-and-out. However, Utah’s Freshman WR Mana Carvalho would mishandle and fumble the punt reception which was recovered by BYU at their own 26 yard line. 10 plays later and sitting 4th and 6 at the Utah 7 yard line with just three seconds left, the Cougars took a three point lead into the half on a 26 yard field goal by their Senior Place Kicker Will Ferrin.
The third quarter felt like a rinse and repeat version of the first with neither team putting any points up on the board. But once again Utah, this time on their second possession, worked their way down the field and deep into the BYU red zone. Sitting 4th and 3 at the Cougar 8 yard line Whittingham once again stubbornly refused to take the points—now 6 easy ones that they could have had on the board—and had to turn the ball back over. BYU would have the ball for the rest of the quarter but hampered by a couple of penalties could never make it much past mid-field. The Utes would finally take the lead for the first time in this game at the beginning of the 4th Qtr at the end of a 9 play 90 yard drive and dramatic 49 yard TD run by Freshman RB Daniel Bray to go up 14-10. But it wouldn’t last long as less than three minutes later and aided by a couple of chunk pass receptions of 17 and 26 yards, Junior WR Parker Kingston would run it in from 12 yards out to retake the lead 17-14. Less than two minutes later the Cougars would get the ball back after intercepting Utah’s Dampier and widen that gap to 24-14 five minutes later on a 22 yard TD run by their Freshman QB Bear Bachmeier. After five incompletions on their next possession the Utes would hand the ball back to a BYU team that was more interested in burning clock than trying to score. With Utah using all their timeouts during that BYU possession they were able to get the ball back with just less than three minutes left in the game. Aided by a couple of chunk pass plays by Dampier and a couple of pass interference penalties by the Cougars, Utah would able to get downfield and make it a 24-21 game on a TD pass from Dampier to Junior WR Larry Simmons. But it was too little too late. With way less than two minutes left in the game and Utah out of timeouts, BYU ran the clock out to preserve the win.
For Utah, Junior QB Devon Dampier connected on 20-of-36 for 244 yards, 2 TD’s—1 each to Senior WR Ryan Davis and the other to Junior WR Larry Simmons—and 1 interception while also rushing 15 times for 64 yards. On the ground Freshman RB Daniel Bray led the charge with over half of the team’s 226 total rushing yards and their only TD. For BYU, Freshman QB Bear Bachmeier was 13-of-22 for 166 yards, 1 TD to Senior WR Chase Roberts, and no picks while also rushing 11 times for 64 yards and 1 of the 2 Cougar TD’s on the ground. Collectively BYU ran the ball 42 times for 208 yards with Junior RB LJ Martin picking up 122 of those on 26 carries and Parker Kingston the other TD. Like Kyle Whittingham said after the game; “We did some really good things tonight. Out-rushed them, out-threw them, and out first-downed them, but we didn’t score more points than they did.” You should go home and mull that one over a bit Kyle because in a game you lost by three I can think of six easy ones you could have had.
Arizona at Houston
In this one Arizona took an early lead, lost it, worked furiously to tie it late and hang on—but were beat 31-28 by a 41 yard Houston field goal with time running out. Arizona got the ball to start the game and wasted no time scoring just three plays in on a 70 yard TD pass by Junior QB Noah Fafita to Sophomore WR Tre Spivey to go up 7-0 with hardly a minute gone in the quarter. Houston would follow up with an almost carbon copy drive in under two minutes and ending on a 52 yard TD pass from their QB Connor Weigman to Junior WR Amare Thomas to make it 7-7 with just three minutes gone in the game. Arizona’s next possession would take more than four times longer than the first but with the same result—this time a 13 yard TD pass from Fafita to Senior WR Luke Wysong to go out in front 14-7. With both defenses wide awake now the next two possessions by each would result in a punt.
With their first possession of the second quarter Houston would drive the ball 96 yards down the field in 13 plays to tie it back up. After connecting on a 33 yard pass to Senior RB Dean Connors, Weigman would run it in himself from 10 yards out to make it 14-14. After the Wildcats failed to convert a 4th and 1 at the Houston 31 yard line on their next possession, the Cougars would be back in the end zone again nine plays later on a 15 yard TD pass from Weigman to Senior TE Tanner Koziol to go back up 21-14 at the break Houston would have the ball to start the 3rd Qtr and would keep it in their possession for over nine minutes on a 17 play 75 yard drive that ended in another Connor Weigman TD pass—this one 2 yards to Junior WR Amare Thomas giving the Cougars a two-touchdown lead at 28-14. Arizona would score on back-to-back TD runs in the 4th Qtr on either side of a missed Houston field goal attempt to tie the score at 28-28 with less than five minutes left in the game. But Houston would use all but four seconds of that time to move just inside the Arizona red zone. With time expiring, Houston Place Kicker Ethan Sanchez would hit a 41 yard field goal to give his Cougars the 31-28 win. After losing in double overtime to BYU in Week-7 this was a tough pill to swallow for the Wildcats.
For Arizona, Junior QB Noah Fafita was super efficient connecting on 92% of his passes for 269 yards, 2 TD’s—1 to Sophomore WR Tre Spivey and the other to Senior Luke Wysong—and no interceptions while also rushing 10 times for 18 yards. On the ground the Wildcats collectively rushed 31 times for 112 yards and two TD’s, one each by Junior RB Kedrick Reescano and the other by Spivey. For Houston, Junior QB Connor Weigman connected on 15-of-23 for 3 TD’s—2 to Junior WR Amare Thomas and the other to Senior TE Connor Koziol—and no interceptions while also rushing 14 times for 98 yards and another TD. Senior RB Dean Connors added 100 more yards on 20 carries with the team totaling 232 yards on 45 rushing attempts. Houston led in first downs, 25-21; by just 15 in total yards of offense, 396-381; converted their 3rd downs 57% of the time and were perfect on their 4th down attempts.
The win was Houston’s 6th on the year with their only loss to No. 11 Texas Tech in Week 5. With records of just 4-8 the last two years it was exciting for the team and the coach to reach six this year. In the AP’s Recap for ESPN both the QB and head coach of the Cougars commented regarding getting to their sixth win. Weigman said; “We haven’t been bowl-eligible in a couple years, so to be able to go back to a bowl, that’s an awesome opportunity for this program.” Head coach Willie Fritz who was wearing a Bowl Bound T-Shirt afterwards said; “That [was] one of our goals. You want to play in a bowl game. I’ve never been to a bad one. I’ve been to a bunch of them. They’re all good. So we’re excited about that.” With a 4-3 record Arizona has five games left, two against ranked opponents, so they’ll need to make some headway on getting bowl eligible themselves over the next two weeks against Colorado and Kansas before having to face No. 21 Cincinnati on the road.