PASADENA, Calif. — With a 19-point lead with just over a quarter left in Saturday's game, the ASU football team appeared confident it would head back home with a winning record. Just as the ASU faithful got comfortable, the game became another instant classic played in Southern California.
The Sun Devils (3-2, 1-1 Pac-12) withheld a late UCLA rally to close out a 38-23 victory, stepping up in the game's waning minutes, becoming the third straight game they've played in Los Angeles County over the past three seasons. It is also the first road win for the program against a top 10 team since 2002 when the Sun Devils defeated No. 6 Oregon.
The Sun Devils and Bruins played to a stalemate in the early goings, as neither team could move the ball across the goal line for a majority of the first quarter. Then, UCLA's freshman quarterback Josh Rosen made a freshman mistake: committing an intentional grounding penalty in the end zone, giving the Sun Devils the first two points of the game.
The Sun Devils continued to build their lead through the third quarter as they seemed to be sitting pretty with a 29-10 lead with all three units playing their best football of the season.
Then, the Bruins turned it on. Over a span of 4:33 in the fourth quarter, UCLA roared back with back-to-back touchdowns and seized all momentum from the visitor's sideline and bringing it to their own with the help of a raucous crowd of over 80,000 fans.
Redshirt senior safety Jordan Simone said he and his unit, who were dominant for the majority of the evening, didn't try to do anything different at the end of the game as the stress factor increased except refocus and play their game.
"We just put our heads down and did what we're supposed to do," Simone said. "No different than last week."
One thing that was different, though, was the score and win probability, which was slowly slipping out of the hands of the Sun Devils.
Then, suddenly, momentum swung in ASU's favor for good when junior punter Matt Haack uncorked what was likely his best punt in his three seasons at ASU, spinning the ball out of bounds inside the UCLA 1-yard line, forcing the Bruins to operate in the shadow of their own goalposts.
The Bruins could not generate any offense, going three-and-out and intentionally getting a safety in an effort to keep the Sun Devils from scoring a touchdown.
UCLA coach Jim Mora said it was not the optimal time to attempt the maneuver, but desperate times called for desperate measures.
"You have to try to keep it a one possession game," Mora said. "You'd like to do that when you are down by five, rather than six. If you punt from the 5 (yard line) and give them good field position and they kick a field goal, you're down nine."
From there, ASU was able to tack on an insurance touchdown from sophomore running back Kalen Ballage to give the team a hard-fought, two score victory, one that Graham can finally feel good about.
"What you see, when we face great adversity, you see their character exposed," Graham said. "That's what you saw tonight — a team with great character."
Reach the reporter at mtonis@asu.edu or follow @Tonis_The_Tiger on Twitter.
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