Arizona State Rebounds With Hail Mary in Upset Win Over USC

It’s getting ridiculous. The barrage of college football upsets on Saturday was crazy enough. The Pac 12 Hail Mary’s over the past two weeks was also crazy.

And both were on display Saturday night when Arizona State beat USC. The Sun Devils, like many Pac 12 teams, have made one thing clear: they don’t need that much time to score. True to a video game, give them 10 seconds, and they’ll make it work.

After losing to UCLA 62-27 last week and trailing USC 34-25 with less than 3 minutes left to go in the fourth quarter, AND with a backup quarterback in Mike Bercovici still filling in for the injured Taylor Kelly, Todd Graham’s team managed to pull off the nearly impossible.

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Bercovici hit Cameron Smith with a 73-yard touchdown pass first. Then Arizona State stopped the Trojans as they tried to run out the clock, an incredibly stupid move by Steve Sarkisian to begin with. He had just seen how quickly the Sun Devils can score, so why would he do it again? Well he did it.

And with 20 seconds to go, Bercovici completed a 26-yard pass to set up the Hail Mary. Two plays later, Jaelen Strong caught the 46-yard bomb that appeared to be under-thrown and ran it into the end zone.

Sorry Doug Flutie. Your Hail Mary is no longer impressive. Everybody’s doing it now.

Bercovici’s ball wasn’t even tipped. USC defenders just stood there.

Perhaps the most incredible stat of the night, though, is this: Bercovici had 365 yards and 3 touchdowns with 3 minutes to go. He finished with 510 yards and 5 touchdowns. So in 3 minutes he had 145 yards and 2 touchdowns. That’s amazing.

And now, Arizona State is right back in the race for the Pac 12 South title. While the North was expected to be the tougher division, the South looks like it’ll be more competitive.

And who knows? It might be decided off of a few more Hail Mary’s.