Deion Sanders’ end-of-game strategy questioned: ‘That is not smart’

Deion Sanders has been heavily scrutinized in his time as Colorado’s head football coach. That was the case again on Saturday during the Buffaloes game against Colorado State. Only, this second-guessing was unique as it didn’t come in a loss or even a close win. Rather, CBS announcers Rich Waltz and Ross Tucker were having a hard time making sense of Colorado’s strategy at the end of a decisive win.

While 2023’s Rocky Mountain Showdown was tense, 2024’s was not. Colorado State led 3-0 after the first quarter but Colorado took over from there, scoring the next 28 points. After the first quarter, the Rams managed only one garbage-time touchdown. Leading 28-9, the Buffaloes had the chance to run the clock out but didn’t.

Waltz and Tucker grew increasingly confused by the sequence.

It started on a second-and-six from the Colorado State 34-yard line. Colorado snapped the ball with 11 seconds left on the play clock and then went for the end zone.

“Wow,” Tucker said. “So, if you remember against North Dakota State, they could have just run the clock out and instead they threw the ball. This was a couple games ago. There’s 1:41 and it’s first-and-10. Instead, they tried to take a shot. And that gave North Dakota State a chance to throw a Hail Mary where they came up four yards short. They also snapped the ball with 11 seconds on the play clock on that last play. That is not smart.”

After Sanders’ third-down attempt fell incomplete, Waltz asked Tucker the obvious question.

“What do you make of this?”

“I don’t know what to — I gotta be honest with you, I think this has to be coming from Deion Sanders. Because I just can’t imagine that this is what Pat Shurmur would want to be doing in this situation. I mean, he’s a three-time NFL head coach. I think Pat would just be taking a knee and winning the football game. And not taking a chance that any offensive lineman gets hurt or that the quarterback gets hit again. Now they’re going for it on fourth down.”

Indeed, Colorado did go for it on fourth down. Once again, Sanders passed. Once again, it feel incomplete. Only this time, the quarterback took a hit. Fortunately, the hit was not particularly violent and Sanders was unhurt on the play. But that opened coach Sanders up for more criticism.

“I mean, he just took another hit — from a D-tackle,” Tucker said.

“This makes no sense,” Waltz added. “They’ve got Baylor next week. It’s into the Big 12.”

“They are fortunate that this wasn’t a bigger hit. This is a 305-pound defensive tackle going right near his throwing arm. Can you imagine what we would be saying all week if Shedeur Sanders got his throwing arm hit in a game where they’re up 19 with less than a minute left and they could have just taken a knee? I don’t understand. I have not seen very many teams in my life in NFL or FBS football do that. It’s a really interesting choice.

To be clear, the issue here is not Colorado trying to run up the score. If the Buffaloes had emptied the bench and had their second and third-string players out there, we’d have no problem. Everyone needs reps.

The issue is Sanders (Deion) potentially exposing his starting quarterback to injury in a game that had long since been decided.

Whether it was stat-padding, running up the score or some combination of the two, the reward of leaving Sanders (Shedeur) out there to throw passes didn’t come close to outweighing the risk.

[Photo Credit: CBS]