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    • Colorado’s Deion Sanders Survives Wild: ‘God Answered Prayer’
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    Colorado’s Deion Sanders Survives Wild: ‘God Answered Prayer’

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    BOULDER, Colorado – Fans stormed the court before the game was even over.

    It was wet. It was wild. And now the Colorado Buffaloes are back on the road after an incredible series of clutch plays at the end of a 38-31 overtime win at home to Baylor.

    The locker room celebration led by head coach Deion Sanders began.

    “It was a party, man,” Colorado receiver LaJohntay Wester said of the scene after the game. “I loved it, man. … There’s nothing like it, man, especially after a win. There’s nothing that compares to this.”

    There was also nothing quite like what happened late in the game. After falling behind by 14 points earlier in the game, the Buffs came back with a Hail Mary pass as time expired in regulation, followed by a forced fumble in overtime to end the game by two-way superstar Travis Hunter.

    “Great, great, great, great, great win,” Deion Sanders said afterwards.

    And yet it all came so close to never happening. Here’s how it went down and what it means after Colorado survived — barely — in front of a sold-out homecoming crowd of 52,794 at Folsom Field. The Buffs are now off to a second straight 3-1 start under Sanders, while Hunter continues to find new ways to steal the show.

    The final ride in the Colorado regulations

    Baylor (2-2) nearly turned the game around in the fourth quarter with a 45-yard field goal on its final drive of regulation with 2:16 left. Had the kick gone through, the Buffs likely would have lost. But the kick missed right, allowing the Buffs to get the ball back with Baylor leading 31-24.

    What happened next was a parade of perilous situations, near misses and “Perfect Timing,” which also happens to be the rap song of Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders, Deion’s youngest son.

    “They never gave up,” Deion Sanders said. “They never surrendered.”

    At one point, Shedeur Sanders faced fourth down and 1 at the Baylor 46-yard line — a play that would have ended the game for the Buffs had he not scored. Sanders instead got a first down on a 3-yard run to keep Colorado’s hopes alive.

    Two plays later, Sanders threw a long second-down pass near the end zone to receiver Will Sheppard, a Vanderbilt transfer. But Sheppard dropped the potential touchdown catch, stopping the clock with two seconds left.

    “We should have gotten that one,” Deion Sanders said. “But we caught the one we were supposed to catch.”

    The Hail Mary, almost 30 years after that other Hail Mary

    After Sheppard’s drop, there was time for one more play: a 43-yard Hail Mary pass, nearly 30 years after Colorado’s 64-yard Hail Mary to win at Michigan as time expired on Sept. 24, 1994.

    “I just trusted in God,” Shedeur Sanders said. “I just threw it out there to God, and God definitely answered the prayer.”

    Shedeur Sanders rolled to his left and drove the ball into the left corner of the end zone, where Wester turned to catch the ball in the rain for a 43-yard touchdown with no time left in the fourth quarter. It helped that Baylor’s defense was paying more attention to Hunter, allowing Wester to free himself more easily to haul in the ball.

    “It was a Hail Mary,” said Wester, a transfer from Florida Atlantic. “I was one-on-one. I just ran up there. I see him (Shedeur) rolling out, and then I see the ball coming my way. As a receiver, your job is to make it right to the quarterback, whether it’s a good ball or a bad ball, and I just made a play on the ball.”

    After the extra-point kick, the game went into overtime with the score tied at 31-31.

    Overtime and the fumble that Travis Hunter forced

    Colorado got the ball first in overtime and drove 25 yards in seven plays, including eight yards rushing and 12 yards passing by Shedeur Sanders. “Whatever it takes to win,” Shedeur said.

    Freshman running back Micah Welch ran up the middle for a 1-yard touchdown to cap off the drive and help the Buffs take a 38-31 lead.

    But Baylor still had a chance to respond, even running four plays to reach the Colorado 2-yard line, including a 13-yard run by quarterback Sawyer Robertson that could have resulted in a touchdown had Buffs safety Cam’Ron Silmon-Craig not made an open-field tackle.

    One play later, the ball went to running back Dominic Richardson, who had a clear path to the end zone except for one player.

    Travis Hunter.

    Hunter held his ground at the goal line, forcing Richardson to try to jump past him. The ball came loose and tumbled into the end zone.

    “I knew this was coming,” Hunter said. “They don’t think I can tackle, so I had to show them.”

    Hunter finished with seven catches for 130 yards on offense and three tackles and the game-winning forced fumble on defense.

    The crazy scene after the match

    After the fumble the game was over. Buffs win.

    At least that’s how it seemed.

    Colorado fans responded to the fumble by storming the field in the rain, but game officials still had to watch replays of the play to confirm it. It wasn’t quite over, in other words, prompting calls for fans to back off and leave.

    “I want to apologize to the opposition for the way we stormed the field,” Deion Sanders said.

    Sanders said he didn’t even get a chance to shake Baylor head coach Dave Aranda’s hand afterward.

    “I don’t like what happened at the end of the game, but I love what happened at the end of the game,” Deion Sanders said. “We have a fan base that’s phenomenal.”

    After replays confirmed the fumble, the homecoming party went into overdrive as the Bears wondered what had just happened. Aranda called it a “heartbreaking loss” and said his team was “devastated.”

    Hunter then celebrated by quickly crawling on his hands and knees through the end zone – a personal shoutout to popular online streamer Kai Cenat.

    “I had to do it,” Hunter said.

    The Buffs still had a little luck

    They gave up two huge touchdown plays in the second quarter, silencing a crowd that had come to make noise. The first was a 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown by Baylor’s Jamaal Bell down the right sideline. The second was a 45-yard fourth-down run by Baylor quarterback Sawyer Robertson that helped the Bears take a 24-10 lead with 4:19 left before halftime.

    The Buffs also gave up eight quarterback sacks, just a week after allowing just one in a 28-9 win over Colorado State.

    Shedeur Sanders called the win “a relief.” He completed 25 of 41 passes for 341 yards and two touchdowns, including a 58-yarder to sophomore receiver Omarion Miller in the second quarter to cut Baylor’s lead to 24-17 with 50 seconds left before halftime. Miller was nearly tackled at the 35-yard line but still managed to score. But Shedeur found himself at fault, saying he missed reads.

    “You have to understand that I can’t play a match like that again,” Shedeur said.

    The question now is whether the Buffaloes can sustain their run of success, unlike last year when they lost seven of their last eight games after a 3-1 start. Had they lost a game like that against Baylor, they would have faced serious competition to earn the minimum of six wins needed to earn a postseason bowl spot.

    Now they have momentum for a cross-country trip, playing 3-0 Central Florida on Saturday, followed by a free weekend on October 5.

    “I don’t like how it turned out, but I loved the results,” Deion Sanders said. “I think we’re so much better than what we show you sometimes.”

    Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email address: [email protected]

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