There isn't a shortage of people, even die-hard college football fans, who went to bed on Friday night assuming that the Colorado Buffaloes were going to finish the rout of Stanford iin Boulder. And truthfully, they had good reason to think that. Deion Sanders' team cruised out to a 29-0 lead in the first half, bolstered by the return of Travis Hunter.
It seemed like it was in the bag... it was not.
The Cardinal stormed out of the locker room at halftime to put 26 unanswered points of their own on the board. Shedeur Sanders answered with a touchdown pass to Hunter, finally, but the defense let up, the coaching staff tried to milk clock instead of sealing the win, and Stanford was able to force overtime.
Both teams scored in the first overtime -- including an absurd TD catch from Stanford receiver Elic Ayomanor to complete his 13-catch, 295-yard, three-score night -- but after driving down to the 2-yard line on third-and-goal, Sanders was picked off for the first time on the night in the end zone. That gave Stanford a chip-shot 31-yarder to win the game, which Joshua Karty put through the uprights to seal the 46-43 win.
Colorado and Deion Sanders trolled after blowing 29-0 lead to Stanford
Colorado is by far the most polarizing team in football, so after the blown lead and eventual loss, fans from all corners, whether they were up late watching or finding out upon waking up on Saturday, came with plenty of jokes.
As Tom Fornelli of CBS Sports noted above, this loss is absolutely knee-capping for Colorado's bowl chances.
Losing to Stanford drops Coach Prime's team to 4-3 on the season with five games left on the schedule. Of course, teams need six wins for bowl eligibility. While two more wins might not seem like a tall task, though, Colorado has proven with this game they aren't immune to losing to anyone. To make matters worse, four of their remaining five games are against Top 25 opponents -- the other is against Arizona, who put a scare into both Washington and USC in the previous two weeks.
Deion Sanders' arrival in Colorado has been a great story, even if the quality of the team was overhyped at times. But making a bowl in year one might've just gone from the fairytale ending to a pipe dream for the Buffs.