Leading 24-21 with just under 4 minutes remaining, Arizona State (6-5, 3-5) seemed to be on the cusp of falling short in their attempt at upsetting number No. 6 Oregon (9-2, 7-1).

The Ducks had scored 14 unanswered points in a two-minute span on back-to-back drives and seemed to have sucked the life out of Sun Devil Stadium.

Facing a 3rd and 16 on ASU’s own 19-yard line, Jayden Daniels took it upon himself to ensure the Sun Devils didn’t suffer their fifth straight loss.

Daniels took the snap and launched a ball into the outstretched arms of Brandon Aiyuk who outran everyone in route to an 81-yard touchdown.

Aiyuk finished the matchup leading the Sun Devils in receiving with a team-high in catches and yards with 7 and 161 respectively.

The touchdown with 3:54 remaining in the game proved to be the winner as ASU snapped their four-game losing streak as they upset No. 6 Oregon 31-28.

“You know Oregon is Oregon,” Aiyuk said. “They think they’re bad mighty Oregon, I had a feeling they were going to come out and do what they do. They still were kicking me the ball, still playing me man to man.”

Oregon did not go away quietly as they scored their third touchdown of the quarter with 2:04 remaining in the game on a 17-yard pass from Justin Herbert to Johnny Johnson III to bring the game within three points.

The Sun Devils seal the upset through the legs of Eno Benjamin who finished the game with 121 yards on 31 carries. The ability of ASU to control the ball on the ground led to the team dominating the time of possession by a mark of 36:25 compared to the Ducks 23:07.

“We knew coming into this game, the only way we would survive it was to make it ugly early,” Edwards admitted. “To possess the ball. We were able to do that ─ we possessed the ball for almost 37 minutes. We tried to slow the game down and really just not get into one of those games where we’re playing from behind.

While Benjamin did the damage on the ground, true freshman Jayden Daniels outdueled senior Justin Herbert in the matchup.

Daniels completed 22 of his 32 pass attempts for 408 yards and three touchdowns compared to Herbert who completed 20 of 36 for 304 with two touchdowns and two interceptions.

The interceptions thrown by Herbert proved to be costly in the loss as both led to scores by the Sun Devils.

The first interception came on the first play of the fourth quarter as cornerback Jack Jones came up with the play for Arizona State.

ASU took over from Oregon’s 32-yard line where they converted the prime starting field position into points on a pass from Daniels to Darby.

The true freshman found his receiver from 26 yards out for the touchdown to put ASU up 21-7 early in the fourth.

Darby finished with two touchdowns in the matchup while also hauling in a total of 125 yards in the matchup.

“It’s a blessing playing with these boys,” Darby admitted. “They played their hearts out today. I love y’all to death. We couldn’t do that without all of us doing what we have to do. I came out here with a chip on my shoulder and I know they all did too.”

Arizona State converted a two-point conversion following the touchdown by Darby to push the score from 19 to 21 on a pass from Daniels to Benjamin.

The second interception by the Sun Devils came on the next pass attempt by Herbert as it was linebacker Khaylan Kearse-Thomas that jumped the pass and set up ASU with the ball at Oregon’s 20-yard line.

ASU was unable to do much with the ball after getting as close as the four-yard line of the Ducks before settling for a field goal and making the game a three-possession game at 24-7.

Oregon outscored ASU 21-7 over the final 8 minutes of the game but ultimately ran out of time as the touchdown by Aiyuk proved to be just enough for Arizona State to hold on.

While Oregon was able to come back late in the game, it was the start of the game that proved to be the key for ASU.

During the team’s four-game losing streak, ASU had not held a single lead any of the games. In fact, the team’s last lead came against Washington State, a game that happened more than a month ago.

Arizona State flipped this trend from the beginning as they picked up a stop on the first drive of the game, something they had not done since playing Utah four games ago.

Oregon was able to put points on the board first just one drive later, but Arizona State quickly answered with a score of their own.

Darby hauled in his first of two scores on a 57-yard pass from Daniels that evened the score at 7 apiece.

The ASU defense came up with a key stop on the following possession as the Ducks faced a critical 4th and 1 from the 6-yard line of the Sun Devils.

Senior cornerback Kobe Williams came up with the key stop on the fourth down attempt as he stuffed the Ducks forcing the turnover on downs.

“If we get the lead, we’re a whole different team,” Williams stated. “That’s how we play. Were just trying to walk out with a win.”

The Sun Devils scored back to back field goals to take their lead to 13-7 heading into the fourth quarter of play.

With the win, the Sun Devils are now bowl eligible after hitting the six-win mark and heading into their final regular-season game, no longer have a four-game losing streak hanging over their head.

“I’m happy to be bowl eligible quite honestly. That’s significant for us. The class of kids we have coming in, probably about 22-23 freshmen, some of them will be eligible to practice. That’ll help us. We’re trying to build a program. When you play a game like this against the sixth-ranked team in the country, it helps you. We were tired of losing."

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