BOULDER, Colo. — Minutes after North Dakota State’s potentially game-winning Hail Mary pass put the Bisons within 4 yards of an upset victory on Thursday night, Colorado coach Deion Sanders came to his postgame press conference looking more relieved than anything.

“Have you ever felt like you won, but you didn’t?” Sanders asked.

He summed up his feelings at the time, but he could have been speaking for all the Buffaloes fans who left a less-than-sold-out Folsom Field after watching a version of their team look a lot like the disappointing one from a year ago. Colorado did a lot of good things in its 31-26 win, but it wasn’t the kind of all-out performance against a lower-division team that will inspire new optimism about a significant step forward to come this season.

Quarterback Shedeur Sanders and two-way star Travis Hunter looked every bit the potential top-five NFL draft picks their coach expects them to be. Sanders completed 26 of 34 passes for 445 yards, and three of his four touchdown passes were to Hunter, who represented an unfair mismatch for NDSU’s secondary. He finished with seven catches for 132 yards.

“I think we had 31 NFL scouts come out tonight and I think they saw what they wanted to see. So let’s move on,” Deion Sanders said. “I’m going to do my best to hold back my anger, but we got the W.”

The more Sanders spoke, the more positive he became about the team’s performance. Still, it was a stark contrast to last year’s season opener against TCU, after which Sanders famously uttered, “Do you believe in it now?”

After that game, Sanders had people convinced the Buffaloes could compete for a conference title. A year later, it seems foolish to use the first game of the season to paint a good picture of what’s to come.

Early last month at Big 12 media day in Las Vegas, Sanders was asked about his expectations for the season. It was a standard question to start an interview in the offseason. And after finishing last in the Pac-12 last season, it would have been fair for Sanders to have been more reserved in his answer or to have included a few coaching standbys that wouldn’t attract additional outside scrutiny.

Sanders instead dismissed the notion that the Buffaloes didn’t belong in the same breath as the conference favorites.

“I’d be an idiot to sit here and not tell you we’re going to win,” he told ESPN. “I don’t know who’s going to sit here and say they’re not going to win. You’d have to be an idiot to say that.”

Win a national title? Win the Big 12? Win more games than they lose? He was reluctant to offer specifics, but this wasn’t someone open to the idea that the Buffs’ 4-8 finish a year ago was grounds for thinking they’d be competitively irrelevant again in 2024.

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One of the biggest reasons he cited for winning was expectation, a revamped offensive line. Aside from center Hank Zilinskas, who started two games last season, the other linemen made their debuts against NDSU — and they finished with mixed reviews. While Sanders was sacked just once, he was constantly pressured, and the line failed to open consistent running lanes. Colorado finished with a paltry 59 yards rushing on 23 carries (2.6 yards per carry).

“You’d like to run the ball a little bit more, but shooting, when you’ve got (504 yards) of total offense, I’m pretty good,” Sanders said. “I’m going to sleep well. Really well. Really good tonight with that. So I’m fine with that. We’d like to see a little bit more balance, but what is balance? Balance is winning.”

Shedeur Sanders also indicated that his offensive line may have something extra to offer.

“The O-line had incentive. That’s it. They had great incentive,” he said. “So, they definitely did what they had to do today. So right now I feel good.”

Sanders was not without his faults, especially when it came to game management.

After NDSU scored to make it 31-26, Colorado converted a first down at the 42-yard line with 1 minute, 41 seconds left on the clock. The Bison had one timeout left, meaning that if the Buffs had run three consecutive running plays, they could have run out the clock with less than 10 seconds left before going for a fourth-down punt, which could have ended the game.

Instead, Sanders checked on a pass play on first down and took a deep shot that was incomplete, serving as an extra timeout for NDSU.

“Cover zero. Cover zero and we have the best receiver room in the country, so it’s a little disrespectful,” Sanders said when explaining his decision to throw.

When NDSU took over the ball at the 8-yard line, it had 31 seconds left, which was almost enough to pull off one final miracle. NDSU’s Hail Mary was caught at the Colorado 4-yard line.

“It was something I was definitely going to learn from,” Sanders said. “That’s why I’m happy. Everything in my life — I’ve always been able to learn from it. So there’s not a lot of mistakes I’ve made twice. That’s just something I’m going to learn, understanding that even if it looks super tempting … you just have to go with (running the ball in that situation).”

In the end, it didn’t matter. Colorado won, even if it didn’t feel like it.