The Arizona St. Sun Devils did what they needed to do on Saturday against the Colorado Buffaloes and came away with a dominant 48-14 win. Coming off of a bye week, the Sun Devils took care of business early and secured a comfortable victory on Homecoming weekend.
ASU's offense put on a show in the first quarter, recording three touchdowns behind the arm of Brock Osweiler and the legs of Cameron Marshall. Osweiler passed for two touchdowns in the period, connecting with Jamal Miles for a 25-yard score just minutes into the game and adding on a 33-yard pass to Kevin Ozier later. Marshall showed some explosive moves against the Colorado defense and rushed for a 19-yard touchdown to give the Devils a 21-0 lead after one quarter.
That touchdown turned out to be a telling indicator for the rest of the game as Marshall continued to exploit the Buffaloes defense in the redzone. He tacked on two more touchdowns- an 11-yard run in the second quarter and a 4-yard carry in the third- to bolster ASU's total.
Beyond a defensive touchdown by the Buffaloes defense in the second quarter, Colorado didn't score an offensive touchdown until the fourth quarter. Tyler Hansen connected with Toney Clemons for a 21-yard pass in the fourth quarter to give the Buffaloes their first offensive touchdown in two weeks, dating back to their 52-24 loss to the Washington Huskeis on Oct. 15th.
In the end, the Sun Devils came away with a 41-14 win that gives them momentum out of the bye week. ASU travels to UCLA and Washington State in back-to-back weeks for a two-game stretch that will tell us a lot about this team. The Sun Devils have struggled to play consistently on the road- with losses coming to Illinois and Oregon following lackluster second-half performances- and the Sun Devils will have to address some issues when they play their final two road games of the year.
If the Sun Devils respond well away from home, this could turn into a very special season for ASU and its fans with only a few losses and lots of momentum heading into the season's final two games against Arizona and Cal.