ASU Football: N’Keal Harry’s big day leads Devils to upset win over Utah

ASU football‘s prolific receiver, N’Keal Harry, scored three touchdowns in the Sun Devils’ upset victory over 15th-ranked Utah.

“Here we go again.”

The four words that cross ASU head coach Herm Edwards mind when star Sun Devils wideout N’Keal Harry’s eyes start to shift to the opposite half of the field.

Early in the fourth quarter, Harry’s caught the ball at the left hashmark on the line of scrimmage, made a tackler miss and then started darting sideways toward the right sideline.

With his teammates making 180 degree turns to block incoming Utah tacklers in pursuit of the ASU wideout, Harry was scampering up the right sideline in a play that resulted in 35 yards and a Sun Devils first down at the eight yard line.

A Brandon Ruiz 21-yard field goal then gave ASU the two-score lead.

Later on, running back Eno Benjamin‘s 44-yard touchdown run with just over four minutes remaining sealed the deal for the Sun Devils in ASU’s 38-20 upset victory over the 15th-ranked Utes.

“No matter what happens, continue to play and have fun,” quarterback Manny Wilkins said. “We have to go back to work this next week with the same attitude that we had this past week.”

ASU’s starting signal-caller had arguably his best individual performance of the season with only five incompletions on 24 attempts for three touchdowns and 285 yards.

All three of Wilkins’ touchdown throws were to Harry. The third score resulted in a key 61-yard score on the first play of the fourth quarter.

The touchdown gave ASU an eight-point cushion following a Utah field goal that cut the ASU lead to one at the end of the third.

“I was going through a little bit of pain but I knew in the second half that I had to be tough,” Harry said.

A three-yard slant on third-and-goal and a 23-yard catch at the back of the end zone in the first half only added fuel to Harry’s fiery performance that saw the junior wideout make nine catches for 161 yards.

Aiding Harry’s performance on the night was Benjamin whose 175 yards on the ground pushed the sophomore to over 1,000 yards rushing on the season.

The star tailback has been the perfect compliment to Harry in the passing game. ASU’s new two-headed monster on offense has combined for 616 total yards of offense in the last two weeks.

“I think we did a great job at our roles today,” Benjamin said.

After surrendering 17 points in the first half, the Sun Devils defense buckled down in the third and fourth quarters by surrendering only three points to a Utes offense that had dropped 40 or more points in the past four weeks.

Three forced turnovers, all coming via interceptions, handed the ball back to a red-hot Sun Devil offense.

“It feels good knowing that we played a really good team and (that we made the right) assignments,” outside linebacker Tyler Johnson said. “It was a team win and everybody (did) their jobs.”

With back-to-back 38-point performances, the Sun Devils are now three wins away from claiming a Pac-12 South title after being in the basement of the division just two weeks prior

Instead of reversing the field like Harry, ASU has reversed their fortunes.

“We’re rolling,” Benjamin said.

All quotes in this article were obtained firsthand by Devils in Detail unless otherwise noted.