Washington 26, Arizona State 14
SEATTLE, Wash. -- Rashaan Shehee rushed for 146 yards and a touchdown and 8th-ranked Washington scored two touchdowns in a 30-second span late in the first half en route to a 26-14 victory over number-22 Arizona State.
Washington improved to 3-1 overall and 1-0 in the Pac-10, while Arizona State fell to 3-2 overall and 1-1 in the conference.
Washington got on the board first, as Brock Huard hit Jerome Pathon on a 14-yard scoring toss with 1:06 left in the first quarter. The extra-point attempt failed.
Arizona State jumped ahead midway through the second quarter on a four-yard run by J.R. Redmond and the ensuing PAT.
But the Huskies took the lead for good with 1:25 left in the first half, as Maurice Shaw scampered 28 yards to paydirt. Then, on the first play from scrimmage on the Sun Devils' next possession, Arizona State quarterback Ryan Kealy was intercepted by Nigel Burton at the Sun Devils' 31-yard line.
Huard opened with a 26-yard pass to Shehee that got the Huskies down to the five-yard line. After a timeout, Shehee ran down to the one-yard line, and following another timeout, he punched it in from one-yard out 0:55 seconds prior to intermission.
The two-point conversion failed and it was a 19-7 game.
Arizona State pulled within five points in the third quarter as Kealy hit Matt Cercone on a 14-yard touchdown pass with 12:59 left in the quarter.
But Washington capped the scoring with 2 1/2 minutes left in the period, as Huard hit Mike Reed on a 10-yard pass.
Huard was 8-of-19 for 150 yards and was intercepted by Larry Johnson in the second quarter, ending a streak of 155 attempts without a pick.
Shehee added 70 receiving yards on three catches.
Kealy was 13-of-30 for 180 yards and was intercepted once as Redmond had 76 rushing yards on 21 carries to lead the team.
Washington outgained ASU, 390-231 and actually outgained the Sun Devils on the ground alone, as the Huskies amassed 240 rushing yards.
Washington Player Quotes
Jerry Jensen
"First of all we were concentrating on stopping the run. Once we did that, the emphasis really changed to putting pressure on (Ryan) Kealy. The second half, they came out and had that first drive. After that, we put a lot of pressure on him. "We didn't really make any adjustments. We just concentrated on playing the defense that was called and flying around and having fun. We had a lot of fun out there today. This is the first time since the BYU game that we were out there flying around, yelling, screaming and having fun.
"It's huge. ASU is the defending champion. To have them come here and for us to get a win definitely propels us into the next seven conference games we have.
"It just feels good to go out there in front of your home fans and get a big win like that. We didn't play great, but we played well enough to win and that's all that matters. We just got to make improvements from week to week and hopefully we'll end up in the Rose Bowl.
"We just created a couple turnovers and gave the offense a short field. That really helped them out.
"We really came together as a team last night. We had a team meeting and a lot of things were said. A lot of people took blame on themselves and looked inside and realized that if we were going to do what we wanted to do this year we needed to start right now. I think we showed that today.
"On Friday nights we always have a team meeting, but usually it's not quite like the one we had last night. Most of the seniors stood up and said their piece. Everybody had something to say last night and usually it's not like that. It just created a lot of excitement today and it carried over to the field. After you get beat like we did against Nebraska you have to take a look at yourself and the team. You have to find out what's wrong. You can either do one of two things, you can get worse or you can get better. I think as a team we decided to get better.
"We came out in the second half and thought it was going to be easy. They ran the same plays, they ran the middle on us, I just don't think we were ready. The rest of the second half we shut them down."
Rashaan Shehee
"We really concentrated on the run in practice last week. The offensive line, I've just got to tip my hat to them. All I did was run behind them. They did all the work. They pounded and really won the game in the trenches. I just tried to get some hard yards for them. We just had a lot of fun out there. It feels great. We can run the ball as much as we have to, we can pass the ball as much as we have to. Whatever a team allows for us to do, that's what we're going to do to win the game."
Did the loss to Nebraska motivate the offensive line? "Not just the offensive line, but everyone took it personally. A Washington team does not like to lose like that, it does not like to lose period."
Did you say anything at the team meeting Friday? "I had a lot to say last night. The most important thing that went on last night was that there was no pointing of fingers. It got pretty emotional, but that's how things have to get sometimes."
Maurice Shaw
"This is a big win. To be the champion you have to beat champ. We just wanted to go out there and establish the run. The offensive line took care of the line of scrimmage and we had some good success. We stuck to the run and committed ourselves to establish the line of scrimmage."
On his 28-yard touchdown run: "It was like the parting of the Red Sea by the offensive line. There was a big hole. It's feels good to score."
Arizona State head coach Bruce Snyder
GENERAL COMMENTS: I don't think we were outschemed and I don't mean that in any way to protect me or the other coaches. But I think they made a great commitment to running the ball and it showed. They were physical and they pounded the ball. They're a very physical offensive team. I thought we did a really good job against the passing game. In terms of our offensive versus their defense I think they played harder. It's hard to measure that, but I thought they were very physical and got after us after they got us down. The missed field goals...that unit has always been so good. But we just gave away nine points in a game that we knew was going to be a nail-biter if we did what we were supposed to do. That whole scheme is built around rushing the passer and hitting the quarterback, and they did that today.
ON KNOWING THAT UW WOULD RUN THE BALL: We got word of that if you read between the lines with players saying they need to establish the run. But we weren't as fearful of that as we were the big play. They're such a big play team, and I thought we did well against the big play. I don't think we tackled particularly well and didn't block as well as I'd like. It's a credit to them. They were physical and ready to play. They had an extra week for us and used it well.
ON ASU'S DRIVE IN THE THIRD QUARTER: They did a nice job of adjusting. A very significant thing to me was how we came out in the third quarter. I thought the players listened at halftime; they weren't down. There was a big swing in the last minutes of the first half with the interception and touchdowns. They could have been a team that came in and didn't listen, feeling sorry for themselves or in shock. But they didn't do that, and I think that's a positive sign. We came in and executed in our opening drive of the second half. We just weren't able to sustain it. Another thing that I thought was critical was how hard we played late in the fourth quarter. After we weren't going to win, or some miracle would have to happen, I thought we played extremely hard. The heart of this team is fine. We need to play better, but their attitudes are fine, taking responsibility. I would imagine if you talked to them they stood up, took responsibility and didn't make excuses. I like this team a lot. We just need to play better.
ON THE CHANGES TO ASU'S OFFENSIVE LINE: We've been playing like we're dealing cards blindly. I just know in my heart that if you have five guys who can stay healthy and play together, you're better than if you deal blindly, so I think we could be further along on the offensive line that we are because of the rotation. We started two freshmen today: Marvel (Smith) and Victor (Leyva). I bet they grew up some today. You go on the road and play a game like this you really mature. They're going to be terrific players. But we need to get Randy (Leaphart) back and settle in on our line and get going.
ON WHETHER THE OFFENSIVE LINE AFFECTED OFFENSE: I don't want to make any excuses. Washington beat us today more than the field goal thing. Actually it should have been three touchdowns instead of three field goals. We are young in spots. (Kyle) Murphy's old, Ryan's (Kealy) young. (Glen) Gable's old, Victor Leyva's young. We're like that. That adds to our inconsistency. But we're a better team than what we showed today, and we have to be. It doesn't get any easier.
ON RANDY LEAPHART NOT PLAYING: Randy is suffering from an ankle. He's fought through it, kind of one legging it or a leg and a half and flat footed. We just felt like he wasn't going to be able to stop the inside pressure. Grey is a big, physical guy and he's really good with the ball, so we decided to make that switch.
ON WHETHER THEY WILL CHANGE THEIR SHORT SNAPPER: We did today. After three bad snaps Brian Jennings became our short snapper today.
ON WHETHER THE RESULT WAS ALMOST EXPECTED: We were certainly not favored. It's hard to win here. Very few people do. They are a veteran team, and the intangibles were all in their favor: last year's game, still smarting from Nebraska, a week off. It would have been an unbelievable great victory for us if we'd have pulled it off. And I think we were capable of it. We knew we had to make every kick and every block, that our margin of error was very small in order to win.
ON RASHAAN SHEHEE: Shehee did a great job of running. I don't know whether we tackled particularly well, but missed tackles go way up the better the back. He was hard to tackle. It's the first time I've really stood on the sidelines and thought, "He is really good. He did a great job."
ASU Player Quotes
Grey Ruegamer
"When he have the ball inside their 20 and we are given opportunity like that when you're inside their own red zone, that's an opportunity to score. When you don't get that, it hurts."
"We just weren't making plays. I don't think can put my finger on any one thing. We just did not make plays."
"I don't think it has anything to do with being a young team. We are finding out about ourselves. We are doing a lot of experimenting. I have been moved. We are just trying to get the best people on the field. I wouldn't make it up be a lack of a young team. I'd say, we didn't make plays regardless of whether young, veteran, or whatever. We didn't make plays."
Ryan Kealy
"Turnovers once again killed us. We are just doing some dumb things with ball. We need to buckle down do my job. We give a lot of credit to Washington because they are a good team. We just got to work harder."
On UW blitzing: "They are pressure defense. We knew that coming into the game. We had all of that planned out. sometimes they are going to get to you, because they rush more than you can block. It's pretty much up to me and the receivers to get it off. A lot of that lays on my shoulders."
On ASU field position: "We came out firing. We need to keep that up throughout a whole half and whole game. We do a lot of things well, but not necessarily at the same time. We need to come out and put a full game together. Washington's a great team. They came out and took care of business on their own field."
On being hit numerous times: "They are a good team and you are going to get hit. This is football. It's all part of the game."
On his first experience starting at UW: "I don't know how you couldn't learn from an experience like this coming into Washington, playing a highly ranked team with a lot of tradition and fan support behind them. Its definitely an experience to know that you can play with them. This is definitely a character builder. We need to build upon what we did positively and get rid of the negatives."
On the weather: "If any the ball is a little slick. At times the ball is wet, but you just need to play through that. There is nothing else, besides it being cold. That shouldn't affect us at all and I don't think it did. I don't think the weather had a lot do with it. If it was a downpour, it might have had a bigger affect. It was pretty nice the whole game. There is no excuses there.
On not capitalizing on field position: "We didn't capitalize. I don't know how many times we had the ball inside the 20 and didn't get a touchdown. The first half killed us. Coming out without any points on a couple of those drives. There's nothing really wrong. We just need to put it all together at the same time. We have lots of weapons to use, we just need to use them. We couldn't ask any more out of our defense. They did great again. They bailed us out every game. We need to play better."
Pat Tillman
"I think we did a pretty good job at first. You know when you've been beat and we got beat. I've lost games before where we lost but we stuck to them. I personally feel like we got beat and I am not happy about it."
On UW drive in 2nd Q w/ Shaw: "I don't think we were tired or wore down. I don't think anybody was intimidated. They were a better team than we were today. We have no excuses for it. We came out swinging. They hit us harder than we hit them."
Comparison to last year: "We didn't hand it to them quite as good last year as they did to us this year, but hey, it happens."
On UW running game: "We've seen it before. They came out in two tight ends and blew our ass off the ball, period. It wasn't anything we didn't expect, but it was something we didn't expect to be so effective."
On how ASU will react: "We have not choice but to bounce back. You get your ass kicked, you get right back up."
Robert Nycz
"I think it just didn't go smooth today. It's all got to be together and that didn't happen today. The weather had no effect. The wind had an effect on my first one though."
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