Video: ASU talks about the big win over Washington.
Danny Sullivan picked a good time to complete the longest pass of his ASU career, and he may have officially won over the ASU faithful who were booing him in his home stadium just two weeks ago.
The senior quarterback tossed a 50-yard touchdown bomb to senior wide receiver Chris McGaha with five seconds remaining in the contest to propel the ASU football team to a 24-17 victory over Washington on Saturday night at Sun Devil Stadium.
The one-play scoring drive for the Sun Devils (4-2, 2-1 Pac-10) came after the Huskies had elected to throw the ball on third down on their previous possession to give ASU one more chance to go for the win with 13 seconds still left on the clock.
And rather than trying to get into field-goal range for junior kicker Thomas Weber, who missed two attempts in the second half in his first game back since suffering a groin injury three weeks ago, ASU went for the long ball.
And it worked.
The game-winning catch was McGaha's only grab of the game, as he played sparingly because of the flu symptoms that had kept him out of practice all week. It was also the longest catch of the senior's career.
UW tied the game at 17 with 3:50 to play on a 29-yard field goal by sophomore kicker Erik Folk to counter Weber’s second miss on the Sun Devils’ previous drive.
UW struck on its first drive of the game when junior quarterback Jake Locker found sophomore wide receiver Devin Aguilar for a 49-yard touchdown after ASU freshman linebacker Vontaze Burfict had committed a personal foul penalty on the previous third-down play to keep the Husky drive alive.
But the Sun Devils answered with their own eight-play, 74-yard touchdown drive on their first possession, with 30 of those yards coming on a reverse play by redshirt freshman wide receiver T.J. Simpson. Sullivan capped the drive with a one-yard quarterback sneak to tie the score 7-7 with 9:22 left in the first quarter.
The trickery would continue for ASU early in second quarter when senior wide receiver Kyle Williams took the ball on a reverse and then tossed a 32-yard touchdown pass to Simpson to give the Sun Devils a 14-7 lead.
Then, one of the most bizarre series of events of the season took place on UW’s next possession.
With the Huskies facing a first-and-15 on their own 48, ASU was called for back-to-back penalties—another personal foul against Burfict and a pass interference against senior cornerback Pierre Singfield—to give UW a first down on the ASU 22.
Two plays later, Burfict intercepted Locker on a pass over the middle and returned it to the ASU 20, only to be wiped out by a face mask penalty by ASU freshman defensive tackle Corey Adams.
But on the very next play, Locker was picked off again, this time by senior safety Ryan McFoy, to halt the Husky scoring threat once and for all.
The Sun Devils looked like they would capitalize on their defensive stand when the offense marched into the red zone on the ensuing possession, but Williams had the ball poked out of his grasp by UW junior linebacker Mason Foster while he was streaking towards the end zone after a pass from Sullivan. The ball was fumbled out of the end zone, giving UW a first down on its own 20-yard line.
ASU tacked on a 24-yard field goal from Weber to make the score 17-7 at the 4:45 mark of the third quarter.
But UW answered on its next possession on a 23-yard touchdown scamper down the sideline by freshman running back Chris Polk to cut the Sun Devils’ lead to three points heading into the fourth quarter.
