No. 21 CU Buffs at Texas Tech: 3 takeaways from Colorado’s fourth-straight road win
LUBBOCK, Texas — Colorado controls its own destiny to the Big 12 championship game.
While Deion Sanders and the No. 21 Buffaloes (No. 20 CFP) cleared arguably their toughest hurdle left on the way to a 10-win regular season with a 41-27 win over Texas Tech, Iowa State lost for the second-straight game, moving CU into sole possession of second place in the conference.
All the Buffs have to do is win their final three games — vs. Utah, at Kansas and vs. Oklahoma State — and they’ll be in Dallas on Dec. 7.
It was a wild, chaotic day in west Texas not helped by some poor officiating and some rowdy fans in the stands, but Coach Prime’s team got the last laugh.
Here are three takeaways from the game:
Explosive third quarter makes the difference
Give Shedeur Sanders enough chances, and he’ll make you pay.
After the Buffs offense was forced to punt on their first four possessions, the CU quarterback found a groove and led seven scoring drives.
The Buffs quickly rallied from a 13-0 first-quarter deficit to make it a three-point game at halftime. A 21-point third quarter gave the Buffs a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.
With the run game struggling to get much of anything going, Shedeur was forced to spread the ball around to his trio of talented receivers (Jimmy Horn Jr. was on the sidelines for much of the game with an apparent injury).
Travis Hunter caught his ninth touchdown pass of the season, moving him within three of the single-season CU record of 12. He finished the game with nine catches for 99 yards.
LaJohntay Wester and Will Sheppard each had a touchdown catch as well.
Defense figures it out in the second half
Things did not start well for Robert Livingston’s unit.
The Buffs defense allowed their first opening-drive touchdown since Week 2 at Nebraska as Texas Tech marched right down the field in just 1:04.
After allowing points on the first three Red Raider drives, CU found its footing from there on out. Texas Tech failed to score on its final four drives of the first half and then the Buffs finally started getting pressure on quarterback Behren Morton in the second half, forcing multiple turnovers that took the sting out of the stadium.
The Buffs forced back-to-back turnovers on downs, then a Nikhai Hill-Green interception and a strip sack by B.J. Green recovered by Cam’Ron Silmon-Craig really allowed CU to take ahold of the game.
Shilo Sanders’ scoop-and-score in the final minute sealed the deal after Arden Walker had a strip sack on Morton.
Dodge the tortillas
There might not be any tortillas left in all of west Texas — they’re all on the field at Jones AT&T Stadium.
Even after the Red Raider fans littered the field with them in the first few minutes, they somehow still had more to fling from the stands throughout the game.
It’s a decades-long tradition in Lubbock at this point, but this might’ve been the most tortillas fans have ever snuck into the stadium.
Coach Prime and the Buffs are certainly glad they weren’t tacos like the CU coach originally thought this week before being corrected.