TEMPE, Ariz. —Arizona quarterback Nick Foles was the game’s most valuable player. His backup Bryson Beirne made the most valuable play.
Beirne, with the only pass he threw all night, connected with Juron Criner on a 23-yard touchdown play with 5:18 remaining and Arizona held on for a 31-27 Territorial Cup victory over Arizona State on Saturday.
“It was just a quick screen,” Criner said. “I saw one of the linemen come up, the linebacker and I just tried to spin off him. The only thing that was going through my head was keep my balance.”
The game ended with the Sun Devils (6-5, 4-4) on the Arizona 15-yard line, where two passes by Brock Osweiler fell incomplete.
Beirne had just come on in relief of Foles, who completed 35 of 51 for 370 yards and two touchdowns before being shaken up and leaving the game. Criner caught nine passes for 134 yards for Arizona (3-8, 2-8).
“My approach to the game is it is just a game,” Beirne said. “I have been playing this game since I was 10 years old. When coach put me in, I was going to go out there and do my job as best as I can. This is a wonderful feeling.”
Osweiler was 36 of 65 for a career-best 487 yards and a touchdown but was intercepted twice. The Sun Devils’ Gerell Robinson had 11 receptions for 199 yards, both career bests.
“It doesn’t get any more disappointing than losing that football game,” said Arizona State coach Dennis Erickson, who is 3-2 in the Territorial Cup.
Arizona State’s third loss in a row does not eliminate the Sun Devils from a shot at representing the Pac-12 South in the conference’s first championship game. The Sun Devils trail UCLA by a game and the Bruins hold the tiebreaker with one game to play.
“Something in the chemistry in the past month hasn’t been right,” Sun Devils defensive tackle Bo Moos said, “and I can’t put my finger on it.”
Arizona State must beat California next week and needs UCLA to lose to Southern California and Utah beat Colorado. That would create a three-way tie between ASU, UCLA and Utah, with the Sun Devils getting the nod because they would have the best record within the division.
Erickson knows that with a team that can finish at best 7-5 in the regular season when so much more is expected will lead to heightened speculation about his future.
“There’s no question about it. People are going to speculate a lot of different things,” Erickson said. “The bottom line is when we’re down with that game next week, (athletic director) Lisa (Love) and I will sit down and see where we go from there.”
Arizona had lost three in a row after beating UCLA the week after Mike Stoops was fired and replaced on an interim basis by Tim Kish.
Foles broke Arizona single-season records for yards passing and pass completions and still has a game to play, a nonconference contest at home against Louisiana-Lafayette.
“It hasn’t been the year we thought it would be, but we are family,” Foles said. “The guys fought extremely hard tonight and this win feels good for everybody.”
After Arizona jumped ahead 14-0 early, Arizona State scored the next three touchdowns to pull ahead.
Osweiler had passes of 17 and 34 yards to Robinson on the ensuing drive, with Marshall scoring on a 1-yard run to cut it to 14-7 with two minutes to go in the first quarter. John Bonano’s 49-yard field goal attempt on Arizona’s next possession bounced off the left upright and was no good. The Sun Devils took over at their 32 and went 48 yards in 11 plays. Robinson was wide open in the end zone on an 11-yard pass for the score and it was tied at 14-14.
Osweiler’s 58-yard pass to Rashad Ross, followed by Marshall’s 22-yard burst untouched up the middle for the touchdown put Arizona State ahead 21-14 with 4:29 left in the half. Bonano missed a 29-yard field goal barely to the right, but hit 43-yarder with two seconds left to cut Arizona State’s lead to 21-17 at the half. Alex Garoutte’s 23-yard field goal provided the only points of the third quarter and put the Sun Devils up 24-17 entering the fourth.
Foles was 6 of 7 for 79 yards on a 7-play, 94-yard drive that cut the lead to 24-21. Foles threw short to Gino Crump, who evaded four would-be tacklers on a 33-yard touchdown play with 10:25 remaining.
Foles completed 6 of 6 passes for 67 yards on a 10-play, 80-yard scoring drive to start the game. The big play was a 48-yard pass to Criner. The Sun Devils stuffed the Wildcats for five yards in losses on the next two plays, but a pass interference penalty moved it to the 1, where Keola Antolin bulled in for the touchdown.
Arizona State, on the subsequent possession, drove to the Arizona 29, but Shaquille Richardson picked off Osweiler’s pass and returned it 42 yards to the Sun Devils 49. Foles threw short to Antolin, who darted through the defense 46 yards to the Arizona State 13. Three plays later, Foles threw 11 yards to Ka’Deem Carey for the touchdown and it was 14-0 with 5:34 left in the first quarter.
Robinson became the first Arizona State player to top 1,000 yards receiving in a season since Derek Hagan in 2005. He topped 100 yards receiving for the fifth time in six games.
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