TEMPE — The last time the Arizona football team drove west on I-10, the ride home was about as fun as the ending of “Old Yeller.”
Only it wasn’t a dog taken out back, but the Cats, demolished in 2013 by 37 against an Arizona State team heading to the Pac-12 championship game.
The Sun Devils had much less to play for in this iteration of the Territorial Cup, but they were no less ruthless: ASU tagged Arizona for haymaker after haymaker, racking up 260 yards on five individual plays in the first half. The Wildcats just could not survive the onslaught in a 52-37 loss at Sun Devil Stadium.
“I thought we brought the fight,” Arizona State head coach Todd Graham said. “I thought we were the aggressor.”
With Anu Solomon out and Nick Wilson still dinged up, Arizona’s defense entered the game with a simple mandate: Keep it close, and for the first three possessions, the Wildcats were stout. The two offenses accounted for just 87 yards on the first 10 possessions, but when Arizona State turned on the lights the Arizona offense — and defense — was still left in the dark.
The Sun Devils’ first-half big-play bonanza began with a dash of Devin Lucien and ended with a barrage of Kalen Ballage.
On a second-and-10 from the Arizona State 34-yard line, Mike Bercovici dropped a bomb into the cradle of Lucien for 58 yards, setting up an eight-yard Demario Richard touchdown run.
Three plays into the Sun Devils’ next possession, Bercovici found Lucien again for the big connection on a 59-yard touchdown. Demario Richard struck for a 37-yard run on ASU’s next drive — capped off by a Bercovici one-yard touchdown run — and Bercovici did more damage on its next possession, hitting Jalen Harvey for a 41-yard touchdown. Ballage delivered one more blow on the last possession of the first half, sprinting 65 yards before being taken down at the 10 as the Sun Devils finished things off with a Zane Gonzalez 29-yard field goal.
Scorecard once more: Five plays, 260 yards.
“It was more about our preparation,” Bercovici said. “Coach (Mike) Norvell does an incredible job, and the preparation started in August to play against these guys. We saw a lot of plays on film we liked.”
In 2013, in its 58-21 rivalry win, the Sun Devils were a bit more methodical, though they did strike gold twice with a Taylor Kelly-to-Jaelen Strong 61-yard touchdown and a 38-yard Darwin Rogers touchdown reception. But Kelly went just 13 of 25 passing, and D.J. Foster did the lion’s share of damage with 124 of ASU’s 204 rushing yards.
Aside from an interception returned for a touchdown and a fumble, Bercovici was more efficient in 2015, completing 21 of 32 for 315 yards, including 190 to Lucien alone.
“We don’t have to worry about him going up and getting the ball,” Bercovici said.
When the Sun Devils needed to go small on Saturday, though, they did. Their most crucial drive came early in the fourth quarter, following Arizona’s biggest play — a 95-yard touchdown from Brandon Dawkins to Trey Griffey — with a methodical 11-play, 74-yard drive that used up more than five minutes.
“We didn’t flinch,” Bercovici said. “When you see the type of response from the sidelines before you take the field — the defense controlled the game all day long, and now it was our time. When you’ve got playmakers and an offensive line that believes that we’re gonna get in the end zone, the rest is history.”
