The Buffaloes started off the season beating teams they weren’t supposed to beat—coming back at the end of games to win. This week they lost to a team they were expected to beat and let that team outscore them 36-7 in the 2nd half to tie the score and eventually win in overtime. But before we give up on Coach Prime and his Buffaloes let’s remember that Pete Carroll went 6-6 his first year at USC and Nick Saban went 7-6 his first year at Alabama. I thought, based upon their really tough schedule, that Colorado should be considered very successful if they could win half of their games this year. After losing to Stanford I’m not sure that’s going to happen considering that they’ll have to face the Bruins, the Beavers, the Cougars and the Utes in four of their last five games with three of those on the road. But win or lose one thing you can say for sure—it won’t be boring.
The way this one started it looked as though it was going to be a piece of cake for Colorado who scored two TD’s in the 1st Qtr and two more in the second. This done while also holding the Cardinal scoreless to go in up 29-0 at the break with the extra point coming on a successful two-point conversion after Sheduer Sanders’ third TD half-way through the 2nd Qtr to Senior WR Xavier Weaver. Sheduer connected on 70% of his passes on the day for exactly 400 yards, 5 TD’s, and 1 interception—just his third of the year to go along with 21 TD’s. His favorite target, Sophomore CB Travis Hunter, was back after being injured in the Colorado State game and along with Xavier Weaver collected over 65% of those 400 yards along with two TD’s each with the other going to Senior WR Javon Antonio. On the ground the Buffaloes rushed 35 times for 132 yards with Sanders, Freshman RB Dylan Edwards, and Sophomore RB Anthony Hankerson responsible for 324 of those on 25 carries with Xavier Weaver picking up the sole rushing TD late in the 2nd Qtr.
For Stanford, Sophomore QB Ashton Daniels connected on 60% of his throws for just 4 yards shy of his Colorado counterpart, 4 TD’s and no interceptions to go along with 16 carries for another 39 yards. Sophomore WR Eric Ayomanor had the best football day of his life collecting 13 receptions for a staggering 294 yards and 3 TD’s, an average of 22.6 yards per catch to go along with Bryce Farrell’s TD catch with five minutes left in the 4th Qtr. In a committee like approach Stanford had five players that rushed for three or more times picking up 124 yards on 39 carries with backup Sophomore QB Justin Lamson and Senior WR Bryce Farrell both picking up rushing TD’s.
This game was certainly a tale of two halves with Colorado scoring four times in the first half and Stanford scoring six times in the second half with five of those being TD’s. Add to that a field goal while holding the Buffaloes to just a single TD in the top half of the 4th Qtr right after Stanford had closed to within three points at 29-26. But the 36-26 lead wouldn’t last and the Cardinal would score another ten points on a TD pass from Ashton Daniels to Bryce Farrell and a 46 yard field goal from Joshua Karty to tie the score at 36 in regulation. Both teams would score a TD and extra point in the first overtime to keep it at 43-43 going into the 2nd overtime. But in a rare misstep and the only turnover of the game, Colorado’s Sanders would throw an interception in the end zone on 3rd and goal at the 2 yard line setting up Stanford for a game winning 31 yard field goal by Joshua Karty three running plays later for the biggest comeback win in school history.