The good and the bad of Notre Dame senior quarterback Everett Golson was on full view Saturday against Arizona State in a matchup of one-loss teams with playoff hopes.
Golson threw for a career-high 446 yards and two touchdowns, and helped Notre Dame rally from a 34-3 deficit to make a game of it in the fourth quarter.
But Golson also threw four interceptions -- including two returned for touchdowns -- and lost a fumble as the 10th-ranked Irish (7-2) fell 55-31. That gives him an incredible 17 turnovers -- including 11 interceptions -- in the past six games; he had none in the first three games of the season. Golson also was sacked seven times, with six coming in the first half; he had been sacked 14 times in the first eight games of the season.
It was the most points scored against Notre Dame since Miami (Fla.) beat the Irish 58-7 in the 1985 regular-season finale, the last game for Gerry Faust as the Irish's coach.
The first pick-six Saturday gave ninth-ranked Arizona State a 24-3 lead early in the second quarter; the second gave the Sun Devils a 48-31 advantage with 3:41 left in the game and sealed Arizona State's victory.
Golson was 22-of-41, with the completions going to 10 different receivers, and averaged 20.3 yards per completion. He had 11 completions of at least 15 yards, and nine of those came in the second half. The Irish had three receivers with at least 85 receiving yards.
Both of Notre Dame's losses have come on the road to top-10 teams; the other loss was to Florida State.
Arizona State quarterback Taylor Kelly threw three TD passes and tailback D.J. Foster ran for 120 yards to keep the Sun Devils (8-1) alive in the playoff hunt. The Sun Devils, who are alone in first place in the Pac-12 South, play Oregon State and Washington State in the next two weeks, then finish the regular season at archrival Arizona on Nov. 28. Arizona State has won five in a row since losing to UCLA on Sept. 25.
Sun Devils sophomore Lloyd Carrington (6-1, 192) had a big game, finishing with eight tackles, an interception return for a touchdown, a forced fumble and a sack.
Mike Huguenin can be reached at mike.huguenin@nfl.com. You also can follow him on Twitter @MikeHuguenin.
