BOULDER, CO (AZFamily) -- He could have called it a career. He could easily have turned his attention to preparing for the NFL Draft, where he will be a surefire first-round pick.
But that’s not Jordyn Tyson’s style.
Instead, after missing a month with a hamstring injury, Arizona State’s All-American wide receiver worked his way back and then delivered an impassioned pre-game speech on Saturday night.
This is about the team. I wanted to come back to help our team win a football game.
Message received. Mission accomplished.
The team-first mindset helped the Sun Devils shake off a sluggish and sloppy opening three quarters to run over the Colorado Buffaloes 42-17. Running back Raleek Brown rushed for 255 yards, the most ever by a Sun Devil in a road game, and the ASU defense kept the Buffaloes in check to seal the win.
“You can run the ball and stop the run, you’re gonna win 90 percent of your games, if not more,” said ASU head coach Kenny Dillingham.
With the win, the Sun Devils improve to 8-3 overall and 6-2 in conference play, keeping their hopes of defending their Big 12 title alive. For one more week, at least.
“We still have a chance at the championship,” Brown said.
The Activation
*“That happened to be one of the five percent.*” - Kenny Dillingham on the unlikely win despite the turnover margin (4 to 1 in favor of Colorado)
The Game Flow
Colorado won the coin toss and elected to defer, but each team punted on their opening possessions.
Making his return after missing three games with a hamstring injury, star wide receiver Jordyn Tyson made a 42-yard catch to get the Sun Devils into Colorado territory on their second drive. However, the offense then stalled, forcing ASU to settle for a 39-yard Jesus Gomez field goal for a 3-0 lead.
Later in the quarter, ASU running back Demarius Robinson fumbled after making a catch, with Colorado’s Keaton Wade recovering at the ASU 22-yard line. But on a fourth-and 1 at the Sun Devil 13, Colorado quarterback Julian Lewis’ sneak was stopped, giving possession back to ASU.
However, the offense continued to struggle, quickly punting it back to Colorado. The Buffalo offense finally got into action, with a 39-yard run by Micah Welch setting up an eventual 7-yard touchdown by by Dallan Hayden.
It looked like ASU’s offense again would sputter, but a fake punt was successful, giving the Sun Devils new life early in the second quarter.
“The fake punt is something that I thought was going to be open just watching how they aligned,” Dillingham said. “I said, let’s run it, because I thought it was gonna be there and we needed momentum.”
But the hope was fleeting, as a fourth-down pass from Sims fell incomplete, giving the ball to Colorado at its own 18-yard line.
After ASU’s defense forced another punt, Sims and the offense got going. With a nice mix of runs and passes, the Sun Devils moved to the CU 33, where on a fourth-and-2, Sims found Raleek Brown along the sidelines for a touchdown and a 10-7 lead.
“Once you run the ball, everything else opens up,” said Brown.
Late in the half, Colorado threatened inside ASU’s 40, but Justin Wodtly sacked Lewis on a fourth down. However, on the next play, Sims was intercepted by John Slaughter. That drive ended in a quick three-and-out, as ASU’s defense stepped up again.
ASU seemed content to take the lead into the half, but Brown ripped off a 59-yard run to set ASU up just outside of the redzone.
“We knew we could get the job done and run the ball,” Brown said. “We just had to do the main thing.”
Another 39-yard field goal by Gomez sent ASU to halftime with a 13-7 lead.
Hayden got the Buffaloes off to a good start to open the third quarter, reeling off a 42-yard into ASU territory. A few plays later, Lewis found Omarion Miller for a 22-yard touchdown and a 14-13 lead.
ASU wasted little time in answering as Sims hit Derek Eusebio for a 68-yard catch-and-run touchdown to get ASU back in front. A 2-point conversion was successful, with Sims hitting Khamari Anderson to make it 21-14 ASU.
After forcing a quick Colorado punt, the Sun Devils were primed to extend the lead. Instead, Sims lost control of the ball as he was rolling out, and Sean Myers made an improbable mid-air fumble recovery to the ASU 9-yard line. ASU’s defense held, forcing a field goal that trimmed its lead to 21-17.
Near the end of the third quarter, Brown burst through the line for a 20-yard gain, but he fumbled while attempting a hurdle, and Colorado recovered near midfield. After his costly error, Brown made his teammates a promise.
“I told everybody I was going to get them (back),” Brown said. “I told them I was going to get a touchdown next possession.”
After a third-and-23 conversion, Colorado gave it right back on a fumble of their own, as ASU’s Keith Abney scooped it up.
On the next play, Brown again burst through the line and went the distance for an 88-yard touchdown to make it 28-17. Promise kept.
“I just saw a big hole and burst through it,” Brown said. “I just followed the pullers, and just saw it, and burst. No one was back there.”
ASU continued to pull away later in the quarter. Thanks to big runs by Brown and Kanye Udoh, the Sun Devils marched down the field and Udoh punched it in from three yards out to make it 35-17.
Another Buffalo three-and-out followed, and then ASU’s offense went to work on the clock. They ran over six minutes of gametime away, and capped the drive with redshirt freshman Jason Brown’s first career touchdown to seal a 42-17 win.
“It was fun,” Brown said. “It was fun to see JB score.”
The Critical Moment
For three quarters, the Sun Devils were largely in control, but held just a four-point lead. After a costly fumble earlier, Brown more than made up for it.
One play after Abney’s critical fumble recovery, Brown waited for his linemen to pull, then burst through the line for an 88-yard score.
After the game, Brown learned that an official pulled a hamstring during the play trying to keep up with Brown. He chuckled and quipped, “I felt slow.”
The Offense
All eyes were on the return of Tyson, and in a limited role, he made his presence felt, catching two passes for 61 yards. But the night belonged to Raleek Brown.
“He played great,” said Dillingham. “O-line played phenomenal in the second half when we started getting the right hats on the right hats, we started moving people. The running back saw the holes, and he played phenomenal in the second half, and the O-line did as well.”
Brown ran for 255 yards on 22 carries, the third-most by a Sun Devil in school history and the most-ever in a road game.
“We just had to get a feel for the defense, and see what they were doing,” Brown said. “Once we got a feel, it was on.”
Overall, the team ran for a season-high 355 yards, although the team used design quarterback runs far less than in recent weeks.
“We got into a rhythm with some of our gap scheme runs, which we hit some explosives on some gap schemes,” said Dillingham. “We haven’t been very good at gap early this year. But we got in a rhythm with them. We hit some big ones and obviously when you can run the football, the game is easy.”
In his third-straight start, Sims was inconsistent. He completed just 11 of 24 throws for 206 yards and two scores, but he also had two interceptions and lost a fumble.
“You can’t lose the turnover battle 4-1,” Dillingham said. “You’re going to win five percent of your games, if not less.”
Eusebio had another huge night, posting a career-best 87 yards to led the pass catchers. Other than Tyson, only tight end Chamon Metayer had more than one catch (two for nine yards).
The raw numbers will look good—580 yards and 355 rushing—but the offense managed to get a win despite another slow start and a major issue with turnovers. Those issues cannot persist next week if the Sun Devils want to retain the Territorial Cup.
The Defense
Kenny Dillingham summed it up.
“The defense bailed out the offense.”
As ASU’s offense slogged its way through the game, the Sun Devil defense continually rose up in key moments. It was a performance more remarkable due to the fact Colorado had 16 possessions.
“You’re defending a game-and-three-quarters and only give up 17 points in 300 roughly yards in a game-and-three-quarters is phenomenal,” said Dillingham. “So that defense definitely kept us in that time.”
The Buffaloes were held to 300 yards overall, as the Sun Devils flew to the ball well, generated consistent pressure on Lewis, and made multiple fourth-down stops. ASU registered four sacks and 11 tackles-for-loss, helping keep the Buffaloes behind the sticks all night.
Elliott had two sacks and Wodtly 1.5 to key the pass rush, while eight defenders registered at least a tackle-for-loss.
They’ve been one of the best in the Big 12 all season long, and they proved it again on Saturday.
The Top 3
Here are three standout Sun Devils from Saturday’s game.
RB Raleek Brown: Getting your name in the record books makes for a pretty good night.
WR Derek Eusebio: The former walk-on delivered blue chip numbers. Again.
LB Keyshaun Elliott: Another dominant performance to fill the stat sheet.
The Question: Can they keep defying the odds?
The Sun Devils have been ravaged by key injuries on both sides of the ball. They’ve made mistakes, committed dumb penalties, failed to execute in key moments.
And yet, here they are, 8-3. They have a chance to get back to the Big 12 championship game, and to achieve a 10-win season.
Someway, somehow, they keep finding a way to win.
“It’s remarkable,” Dillingham said. “It’s a testament to these guys. I mean, it really is. If I’m sure everybody, if they could sit back and be real, and they said all of this was going to happen and we’d be sitting where we’re sitting and we’re still playing meaningful football, the last game of the year matters. Not just because it’s the rivalry game, right? It matters to the league.”
Given the help ASU needs, in addition to a win next week, in order to get back to the title game, their title reign seems to be nearing its end. But the resiliency the team has shown in incredible, and it should have Dillingham in the Big 12’s coach of the year debate.
The Next Step
ASU will head home for a Black Friday showdown against archrival Arizona. The Wildcats trounced Baylor 41-17 on Saturday to improve to 8-3 on the season.
”(Arizona is) playing really, really, really good football, really good football,“ Dillingham said. ”They’re probably one of the best teams in our league right now. They’re just playing as good a football as anybody in our league right now."
The Sun Devils currently hold the coveted Territorial Cup after last November’s 49-7 win over the Wildcats in Tucson.
“I can’t wait,” Brown said. “Big rivalry game.”
The Extra Points
ASU has gone 10 straight games without a first-quarter touchdown.
Punter Kanyon Floyd is now 3-for-3 on fake punt passes in his ASU career.
ASU has now had a 1,000-yard rusher in 11 of the last 14 seasons.
Elliott’s seven sacks and 13 tackles-for-loss are the most by a Sun Devil since 2017.
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