Four points, then twenty-eight
Texas A&M led Arizona State 24-20 with fifteen minutes to play at Kyle Field this afternoon. The final margin was 48-20. Nothing in the first three quarters suggested that kind of ending, and nothing Arizona State did in the fourth prevented it.
Marcel Reed started the sequence conventionally enough, hitting Mario Craver from 33 yards with 14:20 left. The rest of the scoring came from the defence or from field position the defence handed over. Cutter Boley had a pass deflected by T.J. Searcy, Marco Jones caught the carom and ran 55 yards. Sam M’Pemba knocked the ball loose from Kyson Brooks, Dalton Brooks recovered at the Arizona State 26, David Olano kicked a 39-yard field goal. Then Boley threw into the left flat and Julio Humphrey took it 45 yards the other way with 4:25 remaining.
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A quarterback who looked unstoppable seven days ago
Boley finished 21 of 34 for 254 yards, two touchdowns and those two interceptions. Context matters here: in his Arizona State debut against Morgan State in Week 1, the Kentucky transfer threw six touchdown passes. The step up in opposition cost him four turnovers as a team, and the Sun Devils fall to 1-1.
Reed Harris was the one Arizona State player who kept his end of the bargain. Nine receptions, 189 yards, both career highs, and two touchdown catches for a second consecutive week. His 58-yard score with 3:39 left in the third quarter cut the deficit to 24-20 and set up the fourth quarter that never came.
Reed does not need volume
Reed completed 15 of 25 for 163 yards with one interception. Three touchdowns on 163 passing yards is efficiency rather than production, and it was enough because Isaiah Horton converted twice, from four and thirteen yards, and Rueben Owens II opened the scoring on the ground in the first quarter.
Arizona State kept pace through two quarters. Carson Smith’s 30-yard field goal trimmed it to 14-10 before Olano answered from 22 yards with three seconds on the half clock. Smith added a 35-yarder early in the third.
The Aggies are 2-0.
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