Late Saturday night, with 11 seconds remaining and most of the East Coast nodding off or asleep, Colorado QB Shedeur Sanders, down by seven points, launched a perfectly thrown deep pass to his receiver that would have put them inside the five-yard line.
But the ball bounced harmlessly off of his chest and to the ground, leaving the team and its home crowd fans dismayed.
Yet Shedeur didn’t pout. He still had 2 seconds remaining to make a miracle happen.
And that’s just what he did.
ARE YOU SERIOUS?!
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) September 22, 2024
COLORADO WITH A TOUCHDOWN IN THE FINAL SECONDS 🤯😱@CUBuffsFootball pic.twitter.com/8niJ6NPK8t
The Buffaloes’ star QB rolled to the left, giving his team enough time to get to the end zone, and then unleashed another bomb. This time, receiver Lajohntay Wester, one of the smallest players on the field, slid to the ground and cradled the ball for the miracle TD that the entire state of Colorado was praying for.
It was a prayer that Shedeur believed God had answered when he threw it.
“I just trusted God,” said Sanders after the game about the throw. “I just threw it up to God and God answered the prayer.”
More prayers were answered after the extra point forced overtime, as Travis Hunter forced a fumble on what would have been a game-tying run by Baylor in OT, which gave Colorado the 38-31 come-from-behind miracle victory in Boulder.
It was a thrilling game that many missed due to their time zone, but it was another exciting game reminiscent of the games Colorado played in 2023.
Last season, his first as the Buffaloes head coach, Sanders was a ratings volcano for Fox and ESPN, giving the networks some of their highest-rated college football telecasts either had experienced in years.
In week 1 last season, the Buffaloes’ upset of TCU on the road pulled in a record-setting 7.26 million viewers for Fox, making it the most-watched Week 1 Big Noon Saturday game in history.
