- Colorado lost to No. 24 BYU 24-21 after blowing an early 14-0 lead.
- The Buffaloes’ record is now 2-3 overall and 0-2 in the Big 12 Conference.
- Quarterback Kaidon Salter threw a late interception that sealed the loss for Colorado.
BOULDER, Colo. – Colorado football coach Deion Sanders didn’t get too hot or bothered about what happened to his team late Saturday night against No. 24 BYU.
After blowing an early lead and losing the game, 24-21, he expressed gratitude for the air conditioning at the postgame news conference and even said he wasn’t “highly upset” about the way things went for his Buffaloes.
He instead said it was “awkward.”
“Thank you, for our facility, for turning the air on for us at this late hour,” Sanders said after another long night. “Ah, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, lordy.”
He sounded exasperated. His team is now 2-3 overall and 0-2 in the Big 12 Conference. But he insisted it wasn’t that bad.
His team took a 14-0 lead on its first two possessions before getting outplayed and outscored the rest of the way by a margin of 24-7. Then when the Buffs got the ball back on their own 4-yard line with 1:49 remaining. quarterback Kaidon Salter threw an interception four plays later to seal the win for BYU (4-0).
“I can’t say I’m highly upset,” Sanders said. “I’m upset with a few things. But sometimes when it seems like you had more talent, but you didn’t quite win the game, it makes it feel somewhat awkward. We had opportunities, a tremendous amount of opportunities, but nevertheless we didn’t cash in on it. And sometimes it felt like the moment was just too big for some of our athletes. And they gotta do something about that.”
They don’t have much time. Colorado now must run a gauntlet in the Big 12 over the next month, starting at TCU next weekend, followed by a home game Oct. 11 against No. 13 Iowa State.
Why did Deion Sanders’ team blow this game?
By Sanders’ reasoning, it goes back to one of his constant coaching buzzwords: consistency.
“I don’t want to single anyone out, but we got to get consistency at all positions,’ he said. ‘When we get that, you’re gonna see the continuation of what you saw early on in the game. You guys act like you can’t see, right? You see the same darn thing I see.”
A national television audience on ESPN saw it, too. So did an announced crowd of 52,265 at Folsom Field. But if this moment was “too big” for his players, can he fix that with all those bigger games coming up?
“We can try, but they gotta step up,” Sanders said of his players. “I’m not gonna make excuses for them. They gotta step up. They gotta step up. I don’t know what else I can say about it.”
Sanders’ overall record in three seasons at Colorado is now 15-15, reflecting the same kind of problem with consistency as his players. He didn’t absolve himself of blame, however.
“We gotta do better as a staff, as a team, and I gotta do better,” he said.
Quarterback play an issue again
Earlier this season, Sanders grew frustrated Salter wasn’t doing enough. He even benched him one game as a result. On Saturday, the veteran transfer from Liberty said the issue was the opposite.
“I did too much when trying to make plays,” Salter said.
One example came after BYU took a 24-21 lead early in the fourth quarter on a 32-yard gadget-play run from receiver Cody Hagen. Salter faced 3rd-and-3 from the CU 32-yard line with 12:23 remaining. But instead of throwing the ball away under heavy pressure, he ended up running backward and taking a 22-yard sack.
He was outplayed by BYU freshman quarterback Bear Bachmeier, who completed 19-of-27 passes for 179 yards and two touchdowns while rushing for 98 yards on 15 carries.
The Buffs converted only three of 10 third downs, including one of five in the second half. Salter rushed for 49 yards and one touchdown while completing 11-of-16 passes for 119 yards and another touchdown.
Colorado defender issues an apology
At one point late in the third quarter, Salter came back to life and threw a 19-yard touchdown pass to Dre’Lon Miller, helping Colorado retake the lead at 21-17.
The Colorado defense had a chance to shut down BYU after that, when Bachmeier faced 3rd-and-17 from his own 35-yard line.
Instead, Bachmeier scrambled upfield for 16 yards to set up a short first-down run on the next play. Three plays later, BYU took the lead for good, 24-21.
“That play is killing me right now…,” Colorado safety Tawfiq Byard said of Bachmeier’s scramble. “I just want to apologize to Buff nation. You guys were out there rocking today. You guys showed that we’re really a top program in this country, as far as the fans aspect. And now we just have to go out there and show it.”
It’ll be an uphill climb. The Buffs need four wins in their final seven regular-season games to become eligible for a postseason bowl game. A Big 12 title seems like a longshot now.
With a tough stretch ahead, this was the wrong time to take this kind of loss. Yet Sanders saw it in simple terms, the kind that could describe most defeats for most teams.
“We had tremendous opportunities to make the plays,” Sanders said, “We just didn’t.”
Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com