Colorado 31, North Dakota State 26

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September 29th – Boulder             Colorado 31, North Dakota State 26

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Shedeur Sanders threw for 445 yards and four touchdowns, including three to All-everything Travis Hunter, leading Colorado to a 31-26 win over North Dakota State. The Buffs went for 504 yards of total offense, but surrendered 449 yards of offense to the Bison, who came up just short of an upset, with a final 49-yard Hail Mary completion ending the game at the CU four-yard line.

Jimmy Horn collected seven passes for 198 yards, including a 69-yard touchdown. Travis Hunter also had seven receptions, going for 132 yards and three scores. The Colorado rushing attack, which was 129th in the nation in 2023, opened the 2024 season with a 59-yard effort on 23 carries. The Buff defense gave up points on NDSU’s first four possessions, leading to a 20-17 halftime deficit, but stiffened in the second half, giving up only six points before closing out the Bisons’ final drive with a completion just short of a score.

“You ever felt like you won, but you didn’t win?”, Coach Prime rhetorically asked during his postgame press conference. “Giving up the last touchdown on the run, that bothered me, because we pride ourselves on going to get the quarterback, and we have multitude of young men that can go get the quarterback and we didn’t get that done. But I’m thankful. I think 31 NFL scouts were on hand tonight and I think they saw what they came to see. So let’s move on from there. I’m going to try my best to hold back my anger, but we got the ‘W’ so I’m happy.”

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Game Story … The Buffs won the first coin toss of the season, but instead of putting their best unit on the field to start the game, CU deferred, giving North Dakota State the first chance at an offensive series.

And the Bison delivered.

On the second play of the game, NDSU quarterback Cam Miller hit wide receiver TK Marshall for a 48-yard gain to the CU 24-yard line. Thereafter, though, the Buff defense stiffened, forcing a 36-yard field goal by kicker Griffin Crosa. With many of the “Stripe Out” black-and-white crowd still filtering in, it was 3-0 NDSU.

The first CU offensive drive of the season gave Buff fans a taste of the possible. After taking three plays to get CU’s first first down of the game, the Buffs moved quickly down the field. A nine-yard completion from Shedeur Sanders to Jimmy Horn was followed quickly by a 14-yard completion to LaJohntay Wester, with the six-play scoring drive culminated with a 41-yard touchdown pass from Sanders to Travis Hunter.

Order was not restored, however, as North Dakota State promptly answered with a touchdown of its own. It took ten plays to cover 75 yards, but the Bison didn’t face a third down until Cam Miller connected with Joe Stoffel for a seven-yard touchdown. With just under four minutes remaining in the first quarter, NDSU was back in the lead, 10-7.

Forty-four seconds later, though, the Buffs had the lead back.

Running back Dallan Hayden opened the drive with a six-yard run (a run which proved to be the longest of the night by a CU running back). On the next play, Shedeur Sanders hit Jimmy Horn for a 69-yard touchdown. With 3:15 left in the first quarter, CU was back on top, 14-10.

Was the third time the charm for the CU defense? No.

The Bison systematically put together a 10-play, 77-yard drive, taking 6:08 of game clock to retake the lead. With just over 12 minutes remaining in the first half, quarterback Cam Miller took matters into his own hands, scoring on a seven-yard run to give NDSU the lead back, at 17-14.

On CU’s next drive, the coaching staff gave the Buff Nation reason to grumble. It was another quick drive – only four plays – but this possession ended on a turnover on downs. Facing a fourth-and-one at the CU 34-yard line, Coach Prime and offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur decided to go for a first down. Instead of trusting the offensive line to push the Bison back a yard, Shedeur Sanders went into the shotgun, with Dallan Hayden stopped cold for no gain and a turnover.

With the ball and the lead, the Bison had an opportunity to gain a real advantage. Taking over at the Buff 34-yard line, the Bison held the ball for 11 plays, took another 5:36 off of the second quarter game clock … but in the end had to settle for a Griffin Crosa 31-yard field goal.

Thankfully down 20-14 instead of 24-14, the Buff offense got the ball back … and punted the ball away after four plays.

Instead of giving up a fifth straight score, the CU defense finally forced a punt, giving the Buff offense the ball back, but at the CU two-yard line … and with only 54 seconds remaining in the half.

Plenty of time for Shedeur and Company.

A 16-yard completion to Hunter, an 11-yard completion to Will Sheppard, and a 25-yard completion to LaJohntay Wester put the ball quickly on NDSU’s side of the field. With eight seconds remaining on the second quarter clock, Sanders hit Jimmy Horn for 31 yards down to the Bison nine yard line. After a time out, Buff kicker Alejandro Mata hit a 27-yard field goal, getting the Buffs back within three at the break.

Halftime score: North Dakota State 20, Colorado 17 

The Buff offense looked to maintain the momentum of the last minute first half drive with a scoring drive to take back the lead with CU’s first offensive series. Just four plays in, after Shedeur Sanders completions of 16 yards to Jimmy Horn and 40 yards to Travis Hunter, the Buffs were in business at the NDSU seven-yard line. Instead of scoring, however, a Sanders pass to the end zone was deflected … and intercepted by Bison linebacker Nick Kubitz.

On North Dakota State’s first possession of the second half, the Bison … went three-and-out for the first and only time all evening.

With momentum restored, the Buffs quickly retook the lead for good. Opening the drive at the CU 28-yard line, Sanders immediately hit Jimmy Horn for a 41-yard gain deep into Bison territory. After an 11-yard completion to LaJohntay Wester, Sanders finished off the five-play, 72-yard drive with a 13-yard touchdown pass to Travis Hunter.

NDSU’s drive was another time consuming possession, taking up 6:38 of the third quarter clock, but was thwarted near midfield, with the Buff defense forcing a second consecutive punt.

With the ball and the lead for the first time in the game, the CU offense put together perhaps its best drive of the night, or at least its most time consuming. The Buffs covered 80 yards in 17 plays, taking a full eight minutes to score (helping to make a lopsided time of possession stat, which still ended up 36:44 to 23:16 in the Bisons’ favor). Along the way, the Buffs converted a third-and-one (with Sanders quarterback sneak), a third-and-ten (with a 13-yard completion to – who else? – Travis Hunter), and a third-and-goal at the NDSU three-yard line with a highlight reel scoring catch by Hunter.

Up 31-20 midway through the fourth quarter, the 49,438 in attendance (the first non-sellout at Folsom for Coach Prime) looked to finally breath a little easier. But the Bison weren’t done. In a time-consuming drive, the NDSU offense covered 75 yards in 11 plays to score, taking 5:38 to make it a one-score game. A 20-yard touchdown run by Bison quarterback Cam Miller made it 31-26, with the score remaining that way when a two-point conversion pass fell incomplete.

Taking over after the kickoff, the Buff offense had the lead and the ball, and only 2:19 of fourth quarter clock to run out. After two short completions, the Buffs were seemingly saved by a pass interference penalty against the Bison. The Buffs were given a fresh set of downs with only 1:41 left, and NDSU down to their final time out.

Game management math indicated that if the Buffs ran the ball three times, the best the Bison could hope for was to get the ball back with just a few seconds remaining. Instead, Shedeur Sanders tried for a deep pass. When the pass to LaJohntay Wester fell incomplete, the Bison had new life. Two plays later, the Buffs punted the ball away, with NDSU taking over at its eight-yard line with 31 seconds to play.

And it was almost enough. Completions of 20 yards and 19 yards gave the Bison a chance at a Hail Mary pass from near midfield. A Cam Rising was complete, with Tyler Terhark on the receiving end of a 49-yard completion. Fortunately for th Buff Nation, the Terhark caught the ball at the Colorado four yard line as time expired.

Final score: Colorado 31, North Dakota State 26

“We knew we had a tremendous amount of athletes and it was going to be tough covering them on the back end,” Coach Prime told the media after the game. “With the Shedeur (Sanders) and his accuracy, we knew that was going to be tough on them. We just had to hold them and get stops so we could get the ball.”

Shedeur finished with 445 yards passing, completing 26-of-34 with four touchdowns and one interception. Jimmy Horn and Travis Hunter each had seven receptions, with Horn going for 198 yards and a touchdown, and Hunter getting three touchdowns and 132 yards.

Despite the poor showing on the ground, Coach Prime insisted he wasn’t disappointed with CU’s rushing attack.

Sanders said NDSU stacked the box on occasion to stop the run, leaving the passing game open.

“You got to take what people give you,” he said. “What did we throw for, 445 yards? You think we’re upset? Running game? The passing game looked pretty darn good today so let’s be appreciative and thankful that \ we got one of the premier guys in college football spinning it. We’re going to run the ball. We’re going to do that. We’re going to have a lot more balance. Today was just that type of day. You got to take what they give you.”

North Dakota State finished with 449 total yards, including 292 through the air.

“There’s nothing good about losing,” quarterback Cam Miller said after posting 277 yards passing and a team-leading 81 yards on the ground. “But I do feel like offensively and defensively, this is going to give us a lot of confidence.”

The Bison showed a national audience precisely why they are ranked No. 2 in the FCS preseason polls.

“The difference in the game comes down to they made a few more plays than we did,” first-year head coach Tim Polasek said. “I really believe that.”

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Game Notes … 

— The win gave Colorado a 6-2 record against FCS schools, with losses coming against two Big Sky teams (Montana State in 2006; Sacramento State in 2012);

— The victory gave the Buffs an overall 85-45-5 record in season openers, with a 56-21-1 record at home. The win represented the eighth time in nine seasons with CU opening the season with a win;

— Attendance for the game was 49,438, short of a home sellout (50,138) for the first time in the Coach Prime era at Colorado;

— Jimmy Horn had seven receptions for 198 yards and a touchdown, with the receiving yardage a single game career-high;

— Five-star offensive lineman Jordan Seaton became the first true freshman in school history to start the first game of the season at offensive tackle;

— Shedeur Sanders had nine completions going for at least 16 yards, with touchdown passes of 41 yards to Travis Hunter and 69 yards to Jimmy Horn;

— CU had two sacks during the game, one each by nose tackle Chidozie Nwankwo and linebacker LaVonta Bentley;

— North Dakota State played keep away for much of the game, finishing with 36:44 of possession to just 23:16 for Colorado. Had it not been for CU’s 17-play, 80-yard drive in the second half which consumed over eight minutes of game clock, the scales would have been even more in NDSU’s favor. In the first half, when the Bison were building a 20-17 halftime lead, NDSU had a 21:48 to 8:12 advantage in time of possession.

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We were grateful guests at the Arts & Sciences suite on the seventh floor. We had a great view of CU’s first “Stripe Out”

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Tags: Alejandro Mata, Chidozie Nwankwo, Coach Prime, Dallan Hayden, Jimmy Horn, Jimmy Horn Jr., Jordan Seaton, Lajohntay Wester, LaVonta Bentley, Shedeur Sanders, Travis Hunter, Will Sheppard
This post, about the North Dakota State game, from the 2024 Season, is filed under Article.
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