Washington scores on Arizona State’s bad onside kick (Video)
By John Buhler
Arizona State’s Zane Gonzalez kicks an onside kick right at the Washington Huskies’ Keishawn Bierria, who would take it 45 yards to the house.
After chewing up 3:23 of precious clock on a 12-play, 87-yard touchdown-scoring drive, the Arizona State Sun Devils would opt to go with an onside kick against the No. 5 Washington Huskies down big in Seattle.
Down 37-18 with a little over six minutes left in the game, Arizona State’s Zane Gonzalez would do a bad job of placing the ensuing onside kick. He would kick it right to Washington’s Keishawn Bierria, who would gather the short kick and find pay dirt 45 yards later on a special teams return score.
The successful Washington PAT would make it 44-18 Huskies. Washington would improve to 10-1 (7-1) on the season by that same score. The Huskies were pushed around considerably in their Week 11 loss to the USC Trojans but responded and played outstanding football to handle the Sun Devils easily on Saturday evening.
Washington still has a major rivalry game with the Washington State Cougars in the Apple Cup next weekend. The winner of this in-state rivalry game at Martin Stadium in Pullman will end up being the Pac-12 North Champion.
Whomever wins the Apple Cup will play either the Colorado Buffaloes or the USC Trojans in the 2016 Pac-12 Championship Game at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara in a few weeks. The Huskies are one of a few teams in the Power 5 that still control a realistic College Football Playoff destiny.
If Washington wins the Apple Cup and the Pac-12 Championship over either Colorado or USC, the Huskies will likely end up making the 2017 College Football Playoff as either the No. 3 or No. 4 seed.
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An undefeated Alabama Crimson Tide would get the No. 1 seed. One would have to believe a one-loss Big Ten Champion would get the No. 2 seed. If it’s a two-loss Big Ten Champion, the No. 2 seed could go to either Clemson or Washington.