FORT COLLINS, Colo. — Colorado coach Deion Sanders said after a 28-6 win over Colorado State on Saturday night that the Rams made the game more personal after criticizing his players and program.

Quarterback Shedeur Sanders put it even more bluntly: “They just asked for it.”

Comments made by quarterback Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi and receiver Tory Horton during a media interview with a local television station surfaced on social media this week. Horton lamented a 43-35 loss to Colorado last year, saying, “We should have killed those guys, and they came in with that attitude that they were the best in the world, and this is not a Cinderella story. We’re coming for revenge.”

Fowler-Nicolosi said: “I think it shows that the hype, the media train, can only take you so far in the end. You’ve got to put 11 guys up against our 11 guys and we’ll find out who wants it more. We’ll see how far Instagram followers take them.”

Colorado played its best game of the season in response: Sanders threw for 310 yards and four touchdowns, Travis Hunter had 13 catches for 100 yards, two touchdowns and an interception, and the offensive line opened holes for the run game, giving up just one sack.

“Personal play, emotional play,” Deion Sanders said. “They kind of make it that way. We just want to play some football. The disrespect was uncalled for all week. We knew it was going to get a little personal, and it was.”

Sanders said during pregame warmups, a Colorado State player ran into receivers coach Jason Phillips and elbowed him. Then, during the game, with Colorado State trailing 14-3, Fowler-Nicolosi gestured to Hunter to indicate he was too small after a run out of bounds.

“How dumb is that? This is Travis Hunter. Who does that?” Deion Sanders said. “I wouldn’t let my kids do that. But when you allow your kids to sit in an interview and talk to us? Come on, dog.”

Sanders was also asked about the pass plays he initiated with less than a minute left in the game that helped secure the win.

“We wanted to score. The game is about scoring, right?” Deion Sanders said. “I don’t know the protocol. As long as the other team is trying to score, we’re trying to score. That’s my rule.”

Sanders said he wanted his team to come out on top and win. The Buffaloes did that from the start, a far cry from a 28-10 loss to Nebraska in which Shedeur Sanders was sacked five times and Colorado managed 16 rushing yards.

On Saturday, Colorado had 109 yards rushing, an average of 5.7 per carry, and gave up just one rush on 49 attempts. In a nod to their teammates’ performance, Sanders and Hunter had the offensive line stand behind them during postgame interviews.

“You guys buried them last week after the game. There was a lot of hate and disdain and ‘Here we go again.’ That’s what they got,” Deion Sanders said. “These are young men. They’re still full of feelings and emotions. They’re getting those texts. They’re getting the DMs. They’re not comfortable with that.”

As for his play, Hunter said he had no extra motivation after being knocked out of this game a year ago and sent to the hospital. He was seen warming up before the game, staring at the crowd, which was cursing Colorado, and silently nodding.

In addition to his receiving yards, touchdowns and interceptions, Hunter had five tackles and a pass breakup on 123 of 138 snaps from scrimmage. Colorado said it was the first time in the modern era of college football history that a player has recorded Hunter’s full stat line.

Perhaps the only surprising thing about his performance was that he pulled himself out of the game after chasing down Avery Morrow on a 62-yard run in the fourth quarter. Colorado State scored its only touchdown two plays later, with Hunter on the bench.

“I got mad at him too because he pulled out of the game. I told him never to do that again. Come back next time,” Shedeur Sanders said.

“That’s probably the first time I’ve done that,” Hunter said of taking himself out of the game. “Because normally when I take them down I can catch my breath and get back up. That time I don’t know what happened.”

Asked if that was as good as Hunter can be, Deion Sanders said, “No. Travis is phenomenal, week in and week out. We have a quarterback that’s phenomenal. We just have to protect him. I think the whole country knows that. We did a great job of that today. When you see us do that, you’re going to see 36 of 49, no turnovers.”

Sanders said his players were aware of what was said and written about them after the loss to Nebraska. But he also pointed to the improvement he saw from the defense in the second half of that loss, and the strides the offensive line has made.

“We’ve heard all this crap. We might as well end the season with one loss,” Sanders said. “Do you know how many people have lost one game in college football? There are some really good teams that have lost one game. We’d like to think we’re one of them. Yeah, we’re developing some things. Yeah, we’re working on some things. But you can see this arrow is going in the right direction.”