Arizona State’s dream season ends with loss to Oregon State

Arizona State’s dream season came to a halt Saturday thanks to a 35-27 upset win by Oregon State.

The Beavers, winners of just one other conference game, were having a miserable season, but breaking up the Sun Devils’ bid for a Pac-12 South title and a potential spot in the College Football Playoff might make everything a little better for awhile.

Arizona State was one of the few teams on the outside of the playoff’s top 4 that controlled its destiny — win out and the Sun Devils were in.

And Arizona State looked ready to tackle the challenge with a thorough demolishing of Notre Dame last weekend. But all of the emotion that the Sun Devils put into that game against the Irish was lacking against the Beavers, who controlled the ground game early and then finished off the Sun Devils with a couple touchdown passes from quarterback Sean Mannion.

Arizona State quarterback Taylor Kelly threw a pick-six to Michael Doctor with 1:38 remaining and then was sacked on fourth down to essentially end the game.

The loss not only pushes the two-loss Sun Devils out of playoff contention, it also moves them out of the driver’s seat for the Pac-12 South. UCLA, USC and Arizona all have a shot at it, but of those teams, UCLA is the one that controls its destiny. If the Bruins win out, they would play Oregon for the conference title.

For Oregon State, it’s lost season isn’t so lost anymore. The Beavers have games against Washington and Oregon remaining. If they win at least one, they are bowl eligible.

For more Oregon State news, visit BeaverBlitz.com.

For more Arizona State news, visit ASUDevils.com.

– – – – – – –

Graham Watson is the editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter! Follow @YahooDrSaturday

And don’t forget to keep up with all of Graham’s thoughts, witty comments and college football discussions on Facebook