The Sun Devils beat the Washington State Cougars 23-20 in a nail-biter Saturday, but it wasn't pretty.
In the waning moments of the game, Washington State had a shot at a 46-yard field goal to tie but missed, enabling the Devils to run out the remaining 12 seconds.
The Devils' defense, which has been one of the best in the conference, allowing 13 points per game, gave up 451 yards to the Cougars' offense.
Cougars' quarterback Alex Brink threw for 370 yards. But Brink faltered on a key play in the third quarter when he was intercepted by Devils' cornerback Justin Tryon for a 69-yard touchdown.
Aside from Ryan Torain who rushed for 116 yards on 24 carries, the Devils could not get much done on offense. Devils' quarterback Rudy Carpenter was sacked seven times and intercepted twice.
Carpenter finished the game with 217 yards and 2 touchdowns. The first was the finishing touch on a 72-yard scoring drive that ended with an 11-yard pass down the middle to wide receiver Kyle Williams, who led the Devils with 71 receiving yards.
The Sun Devils, ranked No. 18 coming into Saturday's matchup, are now 6-0 and hoping to break into the top 15 with the win.
Reach the reporter at: william.hennigan@asu.edu.