Taylor Kelly returned to the starting lineup for the Arizona State Sun Devils against the Washington Huskies from Husky Stadium and he improved to 5-0 as a starter this year after knocking off the rust
Arizona State improved to 6-1 overall and moved into a three-way tie for first place in the Pac-12 south with a 4-1 conference record after knocking off Washington by the score of 24-10.
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Kelly made his return to the lineup after missing the last three games with a foot injury and the layoff resulted in Kelly looking a bit rusty in his first game since Sept. 13. Kelly wasn’t his typical proficient self with a couple of inaccurate throws, an intentional grounding penalty and a sack in the first quarter before settling in a bit in the second quarter.
Kelly hooked up with Jaelen Strong for the game’s first score from 16 yards out after five straight runs from Demario Richard got the Sun Devils in position for the score.
After the Sun Devil defense forced a three-and-out by the Huskie offense, Zane Gonzalez booted a 33-yard field goal with Kelly’s 36-yard pass to Deantre Lewis the big play on the six-play, 44-yard scoring drive to take a 10-0 lead with 55 seconds remaining in the first half.
The third quarter brought a potential game-changing play for Washington after they stopped Arizona State on four plays from the one-yard line after Troy Williams was sacked by Laiu Moeakiola and fumbled the ball that was recovered by Demetrius Cherry and returned to the one yard line.
From there the Huskies stopped D.J. Foster on first and second down for no gain, Kelly on third down for no gain and the Huskies defense stoned Kalen Ballage for a big goal line stand.
Washington couldn’t do much with the ball on offense deep in their own territory but after a punt they got on the scoreboard after John Timu picked off Kelly and returned the interception 63 yards for the touchdown to cut the deficit to 10-7 with 4:13 remaining the third quarter.
As the game moved to the fourth quarter, the Huskies made a concerted effort to give the ball to their best player, two-way star Shaq Thompson, who carried the ball five times in a row on their first possession in the fourth quarter and eight times overall on their 15-play, 80-yard drive that ended with a field goal from Cameron Van Winkle to tie the game at 10.
But that was as close as Washington would get tonight as the rest of the quarter was all Arizona State.
Kelly found Strong for a 23-yard reception and he and Richard followed with back-to-back runs for a total of 30 yards to set up a Kelly touchdown pass to Gary Chambers from seven yards out to reclaim the lead. Kelly took a hard hit from the Washington defense on the game-winning touchdown and was tested for a concussion on the sideline, so his status moving forward bears monitoring.
He finished with 180 yards, two touchdowns and one interception on 14-of-25 passing.
Arizona State put the final nail in the coffin of Washington when Armand Perry intercepted Troy Williams on a 4th-and-25 heave and returned it 61 yards for the game’s final score.
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