Arizona State Upsets #16 USC 38-34 On Hail Mary

Mike Bercovici and the Arizona State Sun Devils mounted a miracle comeback victory Saturday night to upset the #16 USC Trojans 38-34 in grand style. The Sun Devils had one last possession starting on their own 28-yard line with 23 seconds left in the game. Bercovici got the Devils to the USC 46-yard line with a 26-yard pass to Gary Chambers and then with seven seconds remaining, Bercovici lobbed a Hail Mary pass that was somehow corralled by Jaelen Strong for the game winning 46 yard touchdown.

Both Jaelen Strong and Mike Bercovici had huge nights, primarily because of one another. Bercovici threw for whopping 510 yards and five touchdowns, three of them reeled in by Jaelen Strong. Strong had 10 receptions for 202 yards.

USC was first to get on the board in the first quarter with a 53-yard punt return by Nelson Agholar. Arizona State responded with two touchdowns in the second quarter, both touchdown passes from Mike Bercovici to Jaelen Strong. One a four-yard pass and the other a 77-yard pass. ASU converted a two point conversion on the second touchdown to take the lead at 15-7. It was all USC the rest of the half as Javorious Allen had a one yard touchdown run and Andre Heidari kicked a 35-yard field goal with 14 seconds left in the half to make it 17-15 at the half.

Both teams traded field goals in the third quarter before the touchdowns came at a surplus in the fourth.

Cody Kessler had an eight-yard touchdown run to start the quarter, a result of the young ASU line backing core ignoring coach Todd Graham's audible and over pursuing Kessler. The Arizona State offense struggled until they reached the end zone with 3:53 remaining on a 21-yard pass to D.J. Foster, who's name wouldn't have been mentioned otherwise as he was shut down for a second straight week having just 13 rushing yards on 10 carries.

Less than a minute later Javorious Allen struck again, this time with a 53-yard touchdown run. Mike Bercovici saved the game with a 73-yard touchdown pass to Cameron Smith, 19 seconds after Allen scored. The USC secondary imploded in the fourth quarter on many occasions, especially on the final play of the game where USC's Hayes Pullard waited for the Hail Mary pass to come down to him as if it was a kickoff or punt return, rather than batting it down or attempting to catch it.

Arizona State's next game is against the currently #14 Stanford Cardinal next Saturday at Sun Devil Stadium. The Cardinal will be coming off a 17-14 loss to the #9 Notre Dame Fighting Irish.