Shedeur Sanders threw two touchdown passes and ran for another score, while Travis Hunter, who played both offense and defense, had nine catches for 99 yards and a touchdown. No. 21 Colorado came from behind to defeat Texas Tech 41-27 on Saturday.
Sanders completed 30 of 43 passes for 291 yards. His brother, Shilo Sanders, who plays for the Buffaloes, recovered a fumble in the end zone with 51 seconds left to seal the victory.
With the win, Colorado (7-2, 5-1 Big 12, No. 20 CFP) secured its third straight win and is now in a strong position to play in the Big 12 Championship Game, with a chance to earn a spot in the 12-team College Football Playoff.
Colorado led by two touchdowns, but Texas Tech (6-4, 4-3) mounted a comeback. Behren Morton threw his second touchdown pass of the game to Jalin Conyers, a 21-yard score, with 2:12 remaining. However, the Buffaloes responded by scoring four touchdowns and a field goal after a slow start, leading 31-20 at the end of the third quarter.
“We started out slow. That’s not indicative of who we are,” said Deion Sanders, Colorado’s head coach. “But I felt confident that in the second half we would go do what we ultimately did.”
“It was go time,” said Shedeur Sanders. “It was never a stress. It was never a sweat. It was never a doubt.”
Sanders threw a 23-yard touchdown pass to LaJohntay Wester in the second quarter, a 5-yard touchdown to Will Sheppard in the third, and a 24-yard touchdown to Travis Hunter shortly after. Alejandro Mata also kicked field goals from 25 and 33 yards for Colorado.
For Texas Tech, Morton threw a 17-yard touchdown pass to Conyers on the game’s opening drive. Morton finished the game 24 of 40 for 275 yards. Gino Garcia kicked field goals of 53 and 39 yards, but the Red Raiders struggled with six sacks, three turnovers, and a key roughing-the-passer penalty that allowed Colorado to take its first lead of the game, 17-13, in the third quarter.
Tech head coach Joey McGuire was frustrated by the roughing-the-passer call, saying, “He (the official) said, ‘I saw him hit him below the knee,’ and I don’t know who saw that. He hit him in the hip. I mean, it was a great, clean hit.”
