Colorado Blows 29 Point Lead, Loses to Stanford

The Colorado college football bandwagon has gone into reverse. Deion Sanders took over as head coach this past off season amid much fanfare and great expectations. The Buffaloes were just 1-11 in 2022, so there was no where to go but up. And they did. Colorado opened the season with a 45-42 victory over then #17 TCU. That was followed by victories over Nebraska and in state rival Colorado State. Suddenly, the Buffaloes had three times as many wins as they had in the entire 2022 season.

So it was probably inevitable that a certain reality would set in. Colorado lost big at then #10 Oregon 42-6. This was followed by a 48-41 home loss to then #8 USC. Both of those were perhaps understandable, a team rebuilding losing to a pair of highly ranked opponents. The Buffaloes then scored a three point victory at Arizona State to get back to winning.

Next up was a home game against 1-4 Stanford. This one was all Colorado in the first half, with the Buffaloes taking a 29-0 lead into the locker room at halftime. But Stanford was anything but finished. The Cardinal scored four touchdowns (and had two failed two point conversion attempts) to make it 29-26 Colorado with 12 ½ minutes left in the fourth quarter. The Buffaloes finally got on the board for the first time in the second half with a touchdown with 11:18 to go in the quarter to make it a 10 point lead. Stanford scored a touchdown with 5:06 left, and kicker Joshua Karty booted a 46 yard field goal as time ran out to make it 36-36 at the end of regulation.

The teams traded touchdowns in the 1st overtime; in the second overtime, Karty booted a 31 yard field goal and Stanford won 46-43. It was the biggest blown lead in Colorado school history; on the other side of things, it was the biggest comeback in Stanford’s history.

The Buffaloes have a bye week to process this before returning to action on October 28th. Colorado has some tough sledding the rest of the way, starting at #18 UCLA on the 28th, followed by home games with #15 Oregon State on November 4th and unranked Arizona on November 11th. They close out the season at #19 Washington State on the 17th and at #16 Utah on the 25th.