If you were hoping to see Coach Prime and his guys last another week without getting beat before they had much taller mountains to try and climb like Oregon and USC then watching this one against Colorado State probably took a year off your life. The fact that the head coach had also previously commented that the Buffaloes are about seven guys short of the personnel he needs to compete at the highest level made the cheap shot late in the first quarter of this one, against Colorado’s two way player and most lethal weapon Travis Hunter, all that more devastating. Taken to the hospital and suffering from a lacerated liver, Hunter will be out for about three weeks and his absence will make it easier this coming Saturday for Oregon’s QB Bo Nix to complete his passes down field as well as take away Colorado’s most sure-handed receiver. It was bound to happen in a game in which the Colorado State head coach Jay Norvell made what were taken as insulting comments about Coach Prime earlier in the week and setting the stage for a game that became contentious 90 minutes before the ball was even kicked off. As Jake Shapiro of Denver Sports wrote; “It was clear from the warm-up how this game was going to play out as a CSU player swatted a pass intended for Travis Hunter out of the air to ignite a minor scuffle between the Buffs and Rams at midfield” . . .leading to heated words between Shedeur Sanders and Hunter with opposing players.
Norvell’s comments about Coach Prime, the scuffle during warmups, the pre-game speech by Deion Sander’s mom, the 80 yard pass interception to the house by Shilo Sanders to start the scoring, the cheap shot, the fact that 20 point underdog Colorado State seemingly had this game in hand from the start, the 98 yard drive and two-point conversion to tie it with just two minutes left in the game, the incredible two overtime victory by the Buffaloes capped by a Shedeur Sanders TD pass to Michael Harrison and yet another two-point conversion—all those details will be talked about for generations whenever the topic of the greatest Rocky Mountain Showdown comes up, because this was one for the ages.
We got an early indicator of how this was going to go down when, after holding Colorado State to a three-and-out, the Buffaloes took the ball but were intercepted three plays into their drive. Eight plays later sitting at 4th and 6 on the Colorado 33 yard line the Rams line up for a field goal attempt but instead get a first down after a 15 yard personal foul penalty. Sitting at the edge of the red zone it looks as though it’s going to be Colorado State to take the early lead in this one. But after a four yard loss on a sack QB Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi’s pass is intercepted by Coach Prime’s other son, Shilo Sanders, who runs it 80 yards back to the house for an early lead and what most Colorado fans figured was the beginning of a blow-out. But that turned out to be far from true as three plays later CSU Senior WR Tory Horton throws a 30 yard TD pass to Junior TE Dallin Holker to tie the score at seven a piece—game on.
It got worse for the Buffaloes after that as the Rams scored again less than a minute later on a 45 yard fumble return for TD to go up 14-7. But seven plays and 71 yards later Shedeur Sanders would hit Xavier Weaver for a 24 yard TD pass to tie it up at 14-14 where the score would stay until late in the 2nd Qtr as both defenses held court for two possessions. But, after holding Colorado to a three-and-out, the Rams would go on a 14 play, 89 yard, clock eating drive designed to keep the Buffaloes off the field, to go up 21-14 on a 15 yard Nicolosi TD pass to Louis Brown where the score would stay through the half and a 3rd Qtr highlighted by the inability of Colorado to move the ball and Colorado State getting in their own way with a fumble, a missed field goal and finally an interception leading to a Buffalo field goal early in the 4th Qtr to close the score to 21-17. Seven plays later the Rams would score again on a 35 yard Nicolosi pass to Dallin Holler to push the score back up to 28-17 early in the 4th Qtr. Eleven plays and 52 yards later Colorado would get it to within a possession one more time on a 41 yard field goal by Alejandro Mata. With time ticking away the Rams would eat up almost 5:30 moving the ball just 30 yards as they tried to hang onto the lead they had as well as get into field goal position in order to put the game away. But at 4th and 2 at the Colorado 45 yard line they had to kick and their Senior Punter Paddy Turner couldn’t have kicked it any better with the ball going out of bounds at the Colorado 2 yard line.
In what Shedeur Sanders would later call “Brady mode,” the end of this game defies a written description that can give one a sense of what it was like even just watching the game on TV and certainly no where near the incredible emotion that was felt by the Colorado fans in the sold-out Folsom Field in Boulder. With two minutes left to play and sitting at his own two yard line Sanders completed 6-of-7 passes with the last being a 45 TD completion to Jimmy Horn to get within two points at 28-26. The entire stadium held their breath as they watched Shedeur complete a two-point conversion toss to Michael Harrison to tie it up at 28 a piece as time ran out. Folsom Field erupted as what seemed like the probable end of Colorado’s miraculous start to the season still had life. Both teams scored a TD and an extra point in the 1st overtime to make it 35-35. In the 2nd Sanders would complete an 18 yard TD pass to Michael Harrison and 2-point conversion to Xavier Weaver to finally go up 43-35. In a fitting tribute to their fallen two-way Sophomore Cornerback Travis Hunter, this game would end on a Colorado interception by his teammate and friend Junior Safety Trevor Woods. The stadium emptied out onto the field and Tom Brady’s message to Shedeur afterwards—“I just want to go Shedeur mode at some point in life—great win!”