Prime Day deal: Oregon ships Colorado and Deion home
The Oregon Ducks were prepared for a battle that never came.
EUGENE — For about three minutes, Deion Sanders sat on a stool by the sideline near his own 25-yard line and waited.
His No. 19 Colorado Buffaloes were being demolished — not a shock considering the 21-point spread to the No. 10 Oregon Ducks — but things were hovering around the embarrassing marker with Oregon leading 21-0 in the final minutes of the half when TV cut to a break. So Sanders, who had two toes amputated from his left foot due to blood clots in 2021, took a seat for the first time.
A few plays earlier, Oregon defensive tackle Casey Rodgers had taken the only momentum the Buffaloes had so far — forcing an Oregon fourth down — and turned Autzen into bedlam when the 305-pound defensive tackle took a direct snap and ran it for 18 yards on a fake punt. That killed CU, Sanders said later, and as he sat on his stool and waited for America to tune back in, the NFL hall of fame cornerback had a pretty good idea as to what was about to happen.
“It’s not like we were being tricked,” Sanders said. “We knew everything that was coming. We were saying they’re going to take a shot and they took a shot and scored a touchdown.”
The shot was a 36-yard connection from Bo Nix to Troy Franklin with 2:52 to play in the half. The next came two minutes later when, after forcing another CU punt, Nix capped a 6-play, 70-yard scoring drive with an 11-yard touchdown run. By the end of the half, Oregon had one less first down (23) than Colorado had total yards (24). And by the end of Oregon’s eventual 42-6 win, Sanders had finally experienced something he had yet to as a head coach at the Power 5 level.
“That’s an old fashioned butt kicking,” Sanders said from Autzen’s visiting media tent, which doubled in size this week in anticipation for the traveling circus that is the Buffaloes. “Their coaches did a heck of a job preparing their team. Obviously we didn’t. That was good. That was a really good old fashioned butt kicking.”
That might be an understatement. Oregon (4-0, 1-0 Pac-12) totaled 522 total yards, limited Colorado to 199 and, for the third time in four games, had the backups in by the fourth quarter. Nix, overshadowed by CU quarterback Shedeur Sanders in the game’s run up, finished with 276 passing yards, four total touchdowns and five incompletions during his afternoon on broadcast television. Oregon’s defense, shaky at times here through the season’s first month, swarmed the Buffaloes. The Ducks tallied seven sacks, cornerback Khyree Jackson was all over the field breaking up passes and the Ducks, who have now outscored opponents 216-53, look every bit as formidable as their ranking would suggest.
“Rooted in substance, not flash,” Lanning growled in a steamy pre-game speech that ABC cameras just so happened to be perfectly positioned in the locker room to capture. “The Cinderella story is over. They’re fighting for clicks, we’re fighting for wins. There’s a difference. This game isn’t going to be played in Hollywood. It’s going to be played on grass.1”
Lanning’s distaste for the way Sanders and Colorado (3-1, 0-1 Pac-12) operate felt like it passed over to the Oregon crowd on what was truly one of the more unique home atmospheres in Oregon’s recent history. Autzen’s parking lot filled early for the 12:45 p.m. kickoff, fans were already rowdy and booing when Sanders and his team of bodyguards and cameramen took a lap around the field, walking slowly in front of Autzen’s student section until finally meeting for a chat with Nike co-founder Phil Knight at midfield.
A week after downing Colorado State in double-overtime in front of a TV audience of 9 million people, the Buffaloes again brought some star power. Terrell Owens was on the sidelines, so too was Portland Trail Blazers coach (and CU) alum, Chauncey Billups. In fact, most of the Blazers’ roster, minus Damian Lillard and Jusuf Nurkić, was here, too, to get a glimpse at the most talked about sideshow in sports.
Shedeur Sanders, who finished 22-of-33 for 159 yards and a fourth-quarter touchdown, took the brunt of the crowd’s ire. The fans who packed into the seats behind Colorado’s bench rarely let off the gas when it came to taunts about his watch, glasses and the Buffaloes’ inability to move the football. By the time he, his dad and the rest of the Buffaloes made it off the field, they were sent through the visiting tunnel to a chorus of screams, middle fingers and one sign that read: “You got Autzened.”
When asked what it’s like to be the focus of national and local attention every week, Shedeur said it “feels the same,” which makes sense considering Deion has been famous since the 1980s and the Buffaloes are recorded in some form or another by cameras seemingly 24/7. And while the Ducks did a sizable favor to anyone in the country tired of the endless Colorado talk the last month, there’s still a bit of teeth left to the show as Colorado hosts No. 5 USC next week.
Coach Prime doesn’t think his team is that far off. He just thinks they stunk on Saturday.
“I don’t think it’s a target on our backs, I just think teams are trying to beat me. They’re not trying to beat the team” Sanders said. “They keep forgetting I don’t play anymore. I had a great career. Seriously, I got a gold jacket that I didn’t buy. So, I’m good.
“These are grown men. I’m not out there. If I was out there playing against every coach we played against, we’d be totally dominant.”
But at 56-years-old, Sanders is far past his playing prime. And for the time being, it might be wise for everyone to let the good football teams continue on in the spotlight.
“We were prepared for battle,” Lanning said. “It didn’t end up being a battle.”
— Tyson Alger, The I-5 Corridor
Technically turf.
Pssh.