There is a cliché about playing four quarters that tends to get overlooked. The Colorado Buffaloes learned the hard way that this is a true statement. The game looked like Jekyll and Hyde on Friday, turning things from jubilation to horror in the span of 30 minutes.
The Colorado offense was dynamic once again. That said, the defense is the focal point after an epic collapse that leaves the Buffalos at 4-3 heading into the toughest portion of the 2023 schedule. Let’s get into what happened from start to finish.
It Started Well
Things went about as well as they could in the first half for the Buffs. Quarterback Shedeur Sanders led a pair of scoring drives in the first quarter, including a 24-yard strike to Travis Hunter, who had a tremendous game in his to the lineup after getting hurt in the rivalry game against Colorado State.
The onslaught continued in the second quarter. Xavier Weaver already had a touchdown reception in the first quarter and took his game to the next level. He hauled in a 39-yard touchdown pass about halfway through before adding a rushing touchdown with under three minutes to go in the first half.
Up 29-0 heading into the break, things could not have been better for the Buffs. This is the kind of game that the team needed to win, especially with the onslaught of UCLA, Oregon State, Washington State, and Utah to come over the next several weeks.
Waking up and seeing the Colorado-Stanford score pic.twitter.com/F4WeEIGZuz
— NFL Memes (@NFL_Memes) October 14, 2023
The Collapse
And then the second half happened. To say that the Buffs came out flat would be an understatement. The third quarter was particularly disastrous. Bryce Farrell got the Cardinal on the board about six minutes into the second half to cut the lead to 23. No big deal, right?
Less than three minutes later, Ashton Daniels found Elic Ayomanor for an epic 97-yard touchdown pass to shock the Colorado crowd. Even still, the lead sat at 17. That lasted for a minute and a half as Ayomanor hauled in a 60-yard bomb from Daniels for his second long score of the evening.
By the time Justin Lamson pushed into the end zone from one yard out early into the fourth quarter, panic had set in. Hunter hauled in a touchdown pass from Sanders to extend the lead to 10 once again with just over 11 minutes to go.
Daniels would find Farrell for a touchdown pass with five minutes left but the real dagger came on the final play of regulation. Joshua Karty nailed a clutch 46-yard field goal to send the game into overtime after the Buffs had a 29-point lead.
The two traded touchdowns in the first overtime before an interception of Sanders in the second overtime effectively ended the game. Karty hit a 31-yard field goal to cement the incredible comeback.
Colorado WR/DB Travis Hunter was pissed off after the Buffaloes blew a 29-0 lead to Stanford.
“Are you fucking kidding me? Did Matt Ryan take a break from CBS to come coach the team? Deion Sanders is living off of his sunglasses and me carrying his ass, he needs to go.” pic.twitter.com/ENBWy16DCP
— SpermCenter (@Sperm_Center) October 14, 2023
What Happened?
Stop me if you’ve heard this before: the Colorado defense is bad. The Cardinal, 12.5-point underdogs going into the game, had one of the best days they’ve had in years. The Cardinal cranked out 523 yards of total offense on 399 passing yards. The 5.9 yards per play is also impressive given what they’ve been this year.
Perhaps the worst part is this. Even with the outstanding performance against the Buffs, Stanford is the 82nd team in the nation in total offense. They are tied for 94th in the nation in terms of scoring offense. And that’s after putting up more than 500 yards and 46 points.
Colorado’s defense is incredibly bad for a Power 5 team. The Buffs are 123rd out of 130 teams in scoring defense. They are 129th out of 130 teams in total defense. It cannot be understated how bad this defense is and it is costing this team games even with the 28th ranked scoring offense in the nation.
Deion Sanders calls collapse against Stanford "pathetic" tells team to get ready for social media's wrath pic.twitter.com/AR4KLboWyi
— Colorado on Athlon (@BuffsonAthlon) October 16, 2023
Season Outlook Dampened
That leads to what we can expect from the rest of the season. Even before the Stanford game, the outlook wasn’t exactly positive. Losing to Stanford, especially in this fashion, only makes that outlook even more bleak. This was the chance for the Buffs to get an easy fifth win, needing just one more to become bowl-eligible.
Now, the rough slate begins. They head to UCLA a week from Saturday to take on the #25 Bruins. A week later, the Buffs head home to host #12 Oregon State. Even the game against Arizona after that looks like it could go either way. Washington State has fallen from the ranks but is still tough. And then there is Utah to close out the year.
Rankings and stats mean nothing at this point. Even an inept offense like Stanford picked apart the Buffs’ defense. Things could get ugly a few times over the final five weeks of the 2023 season.
Doing the work 😤 pic.twitter.com/QWAQbUafAO
— Colorado Buffaloes Football (@CUBuffsFootball) October 16, 2023
