Deion Sanders and the Colorado Buffaloes had to pull out all of the stops to win last night.
The whole college football world watched – with many cheering against Colorado – as the Buffaloes took on the North Dakota State Bison – a highly decorated team out of the FCS (one level below the FBS). Deion’s Buffaloes needed two stellar games out of his stars, Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter, in order to outlast the Bison.
Bison versus buffaloes… are we sure this isn’t a Riff Outdoors story?
Deion’s son and star QB, Shedeur, had 445 yards passing to go along with four touchdowns (and one crazy interception). Hunter caught 7 passes for 132 yards and three touchdowns… while also playing and shining on the defensive side of the ball.
One of his catches included this mind-boggling grab that you could basically chalk up as the game winner:
MY GOD TRAVIS HUNTER!!! pic.twitter.com/5gNZbV5AvJ
— Oh No He Didn't (@ohnohedidnt24) August 30, 2024
There were plenty of exciting plays to go around in what ended up being a shootout that came out in Colorado’s favor. The Buffaloes took down the feisty Bison 31 to 26, and there’s one pivotal play that contributed to that win that’s being talked about a lot today.
Shedeur Sanders alleged fake cramp in the second quarter.
While Colorado was trailing in the first half, they went for it on fourth down and failed to reach the line to gain. So the field flipped, and NDSU got out there as soon as they could to try and catch the Buffaloes team off guard. They succeeded in doing so, as Colorado was still moseying around on the sideline and had not sent their defense out on the field.
That’s when Shedeur Sanders just happened to have a leg cramp that called for an injury timeout:
Shedeur Sanders "cramp" pic.twitter.com/CLx1bhWbY0
— sportsvids99 (@sportsvids991) August 30, 2024
What are the odds of that timing, huh?
The injury timeout stopped the clock, allowed for Colorado to get their defense out on the field, and didn’t cost them one of their three allotted timeouts for the first half. Even the announcers for ESPN were aware of what Shedeur and Colorado got away with.
There’s a good chance that Colorado will eventually be fined for this, but until then, social media is making sure the Buffalo squad knows what they did was cheap and unsportsmanlike (even though plays like this happen all the time across all sports at all levels):
Shedeur Sanders fakes a cramp causing an injury time out so the Colorado defense could get on the field, after a failed 4th down attempt
Meanwhile everyone complains when soccer players fall and say football players would never…
— George Jarjour (@GeorgeOnTap) August 30, 2024
Shedeur Sanders just faked a cramp to buy an extra timeout because Deion Sanders and Colorado sent their offense on the field after clearly coming up a yard short on 4th down.
Just an absolute circus going on at Colorado.
— College Football Watcher (@CFBWatcher) August 30, 2024
Shedeur looked back and saw no defense out there, then faked a cramp. How pathetic.
Great talent, pathetic person
— Husker Wave (@HuskerWave) August 30, 2024
Sanders cramp healed just in time to come back in and get a personal foul. 🤔
— nathan followill (@doctorfollowill) August 30, 2024
"Apparent cramp" as Shedeur Sanders proceeds to do the absolute worst fake limp of all time to get an injury timeout pic.twitter.com/y2p6hJ9qSM
— SABAN! (@Sabinistic) August 30, 2024
COLLEGE FOOTBALL IS BACK!
