Deion Sanders didn’t spend Saturday night burying his team after Colorado’s 27-24 loss to No. 11 Utah. He did the opposite.
That alone says plenty about the way the Buffaloes played at Folsom Field. Colorado dropped its fourth straight game when Isaac Wilson’s Hail Mary on the final snap fell incomplete, but Sanders walked into his postgame press conference sounding like a coach who had seen a response worth acknowledging.
“I did something I never do,” Sanders said at his postgame press conference. “After the loss, I stood up there on the podium and told those kids, I’m really proud of y’all, man. Because they fought, they didn’t give up, they had a chance.”
The reason he felt that way was obvious in the way Colorado flipped the game after halftime. The Buffaloes went into the break trailing 13-0, then poured in 17 points in the third quarter to grab the lead. DeKalon Taylor’s 18-yard touchdown run put Colorado ahead for the first time, and Elliott Arnold later added a field goal to push the margin to four.
That kind of rally could have vanished fast for a team already carrying a four-game skid. Instead, Colorado kept fighting, and Sanders made sure his players heard that first. He only then turned to the bigger picture, which still includes plenty of rough edges.
One of the clearest signs of that trust showed up with Arnold. The kicker had missed both of his field-goal tries against Texas Tech, including a 29-yarder, but Sanders still believed enough in him to want him in position for a possible tie against Utah.
“I just knew Elliott was gonna hit that field goal. And we was gonna go into overtime, and he wanted it,” Sanders said. “He was kicking the heck out of the ball early today.”
Arnold backed up that belief with a steadier performance. He made a 32-yard field goal and all three extra points, giving Colorado a much better outing from the spot even if it didn’t erase what happened the week before. For a staff sorting through kicking questions, it gave them another performance to evaluate.
Colorado never got the chance to test that faith on the final snap, because Wilson’s throw stayed incomplete. Arnold never got the game-tying attempt Sanders thought was coming.
The loss still came with the same old problems layered underneath the comeback. Colorado was flagged 10 times for 93 yards, and Utah controlled the ball for 37 minutes. That left the Buffaloes with fewer opportunities to turn their second-half surge into a win.
Even so, Colorado found some movement on the ground. The Buffs ran for 138 yards on 24 carries, a clip of nearly 5.8 yards per rush.
It was enough to fuel the rally, not enough to finish the job. The record now sits at 2-4, with three conference losses.
Sanders still chose to start with what he liked. He ended his opening thought by circling back to Arnold’s response after the Texas Tech game.
“And he said, coach, it was just one game, I’m back, baby, I’m back,” Sanders recalled. “So I was ready to give him an opportunity.”
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Utah is still perfect, but Saturdays 27-24 win over Colorado came with a jolt the Utes hadnt felt much this fall. The Buffaloes briefly moved in front late in the third quarter on Elliot Arnolds field goal, and Utah had to answer with key plays from quarterback Devon Dampier and receiver Braden Pegan to keep its unbeaten season intact at 6-0.
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The defense then did its part in the fourth quarter, making the timely stops Utah needed to survive Colorados push and bring the trip to a close with a victory. Even so, the escape came with a reminder that the Utes are still searching for cleaner finishes, because a game that was there to be controlled instead had to be saved late. [Read more 🡒]