A bad Stanford Cardinal squad defeated the Colorado Buffaloes in Boulder on Friday night after the team blew a 29-0 lead, the greatest choke job in the history of the program.
The 46-43 defeat in double overtime is the kind that causes coaches to be dismissed, remains with teams for a very long time, and appears on many obituaries. We can speculate about various individual plays from the collapse and ask, “What if?” Colorado misses a postseason bowl once more.
But for a defense that gave up the most yards to a wide receiver playing against them in school history, there is no what-if. No, not for the defense, which surrendered 46 points in the second half and the extra period.
Not for the offense, which scored just seven points in the second half of regulation. Not for standout athlete Travis Hunter, who committed the crucial foul. Not for co-star Shedeur Sanders, who committed the only error in the contest. Definitely not the entire period when 17 penalties were called. Of course, it wasn’t only the coaching staff as a whole that contributed to the train derailing when everyone could see it coming.
Deion Sanders claims that the Buffs will take this kind of gut check, which was like a punch to the chin. Sanders had a very clear message for his squad following the game, despite the fact that as an athlete himself, he had never experienced such a collapse.
“I just said in the locker room to the team is they got to make up their mind. Are they in love with this game? Are they in like with it,” Sanders said of his ask early Saturday morning. “Because when you love something you give to it unconditionally. You give everything you got to it, but when you like it, it’s just the button you push. You like something, like that’s what they do on social media. So we got to figure out, do they love it or do they like it?”
“And it’s hard for me because I love this. I love it,” Sanders said. “And without a shadow of a doubt, I am truly 100% in love with this thing. And I just want people to match me, just match my passion. Match my heart, match my love, match my consistency, just match my mannerisms. Just match every darn thing I give to this game. I love this. Sadly, I love it so much but the game doesn’t even occupy the ability to love you back. That’s a strange love isn’t it?”
The traumatized After a disappointing loss Friday night that dropped the Buffs to 4-3 on the year, they have a bye this week.
