Head Coach Deion Sanders speaks to a player on Sept. 7, 2024. (Talus Schreiber/Sko Buff Sports)
The University of Colorado Boulder football team lost 28-10 Saturday night to the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers. On a night that felt like it was never the Buffs’, Colorado was in trouble from the start at the packed Memorial Stadium in Lincoln.
From the get-go, Colorado looked uncomfortable against the aggressive Nebraska pass rush. On the first drive, quarterback Shedeur Sanders experienced a tipped ball on his first pass attempt, a dropped pass on his second attempt and a sack on third down.
This lackluster offensive output continued for the rest of the first quarter. The Colorado passing game lacked pass protection for Sanders to allow receivers to get downfield, while offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur called for only one running play throughout the entire opening quarter.
This all culminated in a rare costly mistake by Shedeur Sanders, in which he attempted to complete a sideline pass out of the end zone and delivered the ball right into the hands of Nebraska cornerback Tommi Hill for an easy 6-yard touchdown return to make the score 14-0 Nebraska.
“Usually we always start out positive. We started out with the first ball, I think, deflected, the second ball we didn’t bring in, and it just was not a rhythm. Then we came out and Shedeur did something very uncharacteristic of himself and made a bad decision,” said Head Coach Deion Sanders about his team’s rough start.
The game continued to spiral out of Colorado’s control in the second quarter. To make the score 21-0, Nebraska’s freshman quarterback Dylan Raiola launched an on-the-run deep ball across the field, which was miraculously tracked down and caught by receiver Jaylen Lloyd on the one-yard line.
Nebraska running back Dante Dowdell ran the ball into the end zone on the next play. On the following drive, the first promising progress of the day for the Colorado offense ended in a 29-yard field goal attempt by Alejandro Mata getting blocked.
To finish off the second quarter scoring, Colorado saw an opportunity for a red-zone turnover when linebacker LaVonta Bentley fumbled a stray Raiola pass aimed directly into his hands. Instead of Bentley coming away with it, the ball popped out right into the hands of Nebraska receiver Rahmir Johnson, who ran the remaining five yards into the end zone. The first half finished with a shocking score of Nebraska 28, Colorado 0.
In response to how much the pick-six in the first quarter affected the rest of the game, quarterback Sanders responded, “A lot. It was a rookie mistake, honestly. It’s small things like that just can’t happen.”
Indeed, the pick-six and Nebraska’s tip drill touchdown seemed to determine the outcome of the game for a large part, as Colorado played much better in the second half. The offense settled in, producing two scoring drives, including a 5-yard Sanders touchdown pass to LaJohntay Wester with 8:45 left in the fourth quarter. The defense performed a shutout in the second half as well.
“We had every reason to shut down. There are 90-some thousand people in the stands, we’re down 28-0, and nothing’s falling our way. We had every reason to shut it down,” said Colorado safety Cam’Ron Silmon-Craig. “We came out with a different mentality, we shut [Nebraska] out in the second half, so we’ve got something to go off of, and I’m proud of.”
Colorado cut the Cornhusker lead to 18 points in the fourth quarter; however, the misfortune of the first half was too much to overcome in the end. Sanders finished with 244 passing yards, one touchdown and one interception.
Additionally, Travis Hunter served as a security blanket on offense with 10 receptions for 110 yards, while providing outstanding coverage on defense and even blowing up a receiver screen for a tackle for loss in the first half.
On an unfortunate note, Colorado safety Shilo Sanders left the game with an arm injury in the first quarter. For the Nebraska side, Nebraska quarterback Raiola produced 185 passing yards with a touchdown, and Nebraska running back Dowdell rushed for 74 yards and two touchdowns.
The Buffaloes will hope to get back on track against arch rival Colorado State University next weekend when the two clash for the Rocky Mountain Showdown in Fort Collins.
Contact CU Independent Sports Editor Charlie Hewitt at charles.hewitt@colorado.edu
