BOULDER – The Colorado Buffaloes came into their Friday night matchup against the one-win Stanford Cardinal with doubts to disprove, but a historic second half breakdown left more uncertainties surrounding the black and gold than ever before.

“I’m truly upset,” Colorado head coach Deion Sanders said to kick off the post-game press conference, “I’m truly disturbed.”

With the Cardinal heading into the Pac-12 matchup having lost their last four games, the Buffs needed to make a statement. Having only beaten the now 1-5 Arizona State Sun Devils by three points the week before and the now 3-3 Colorado State Rams by eight points in double overtime in Week 3, many had concluded that Colorado couldn’t beat “bad” teams.

Heading into halftime, that conclusion had been squashed.

The Buffs led 29-0, having scored touchdowns on four of their first five drives as Stanford failed to come close to scoring outside of a missed field goal. CU wideout Xavier Weaver had three touchdowns going into the break while two-way superstar Travis Hunter made his presence felt in his highly awaited return. In his first half of football since suffering a lacerated liver against CSU, Hunter scored his first touchdown of the year and forced multiple incompletions.

Colorado had cleaned up their offensive line, the pressure on the quarterback was felt, and the special team unit was functioning like a well-oiled machine. All of CU’s issues appeared to be resolved.

On the last of the four first half touchdowns, Colorado ran an end around to Weaver for his third touchdown of the game. As the confused Cardinal defense followed an empty-handed ball carrier, Weaver eased up around the 20-yard line, walking into the end zone untouched.

As the graduate student trotted to the goal line, it seemed Colorado could trot to the finish line as well.

But sophomore wideout Elic Ayomanor and the Stanford Cardinal had other plans.

“I felt complacency going into the half,” Coach Prime said, “because we stalled offensively and we gave up some yardage as well. Just didn’t like how I felt going into halftime.”

After stopping the Buffs on the first drive of the second half, Stanford scored 26 unanswered points, getting within three of Colorado’s first half total. Amidst the barrage of touchdowns, Ayomanor found the end zone twice, including a 97-yard catch and run for six.

“It was flat-out ridiculous,” Coach Prime said about Ayomanor’s long touchdown, “That’s when it all started.”

With the momentum on Stanford’s side, Colorado stayed resilient, finally getting on the board in the fourth quarter thanks to Hunter’s second touchdown snag of the game.

However, the Cardinal could smell blood.

After scoring on the following drive to get back within three, a defensive stand forced CU to punt. Colorado punter Mark Vassett pinned Stanford at their own 1-yard line with just under three minutes left. But with the help of Colorado’s 17th penalty of the game, the Cardinal marched up the field for a Joshua Karty game-tying field goal as time expired.

For the second time this season, Colorado was facing overtime in Boulder.

The Buffs won the coin toss to start overtime, their ninth straight coin toss win of the year, and elected to start with the ball. The Colorado offense made quick work, capping off the first overtime drive with a touchdown from wide receiver Javon Antonio to go up seven.

It was quickly short-lived.

On the first play of Stanford’s drive, Cardinal quarterback Ashton Daniels looked deep downfield. As he released the ball in the direction of Hunter, excitement spiked with a potential interception possibly on the way. But in the most impressive moment of the game, Ayomanor rose up, snatching the underthrown ball off of the back of the star cornerback’s helmet in one of the greatest catches Folsom has ever seen. The Colorado crowd fell silent, Ayomanor’s hands stretched out wide in celebration after pulling off the potential play of the year.

“We did not play our best game, especially at the cornerback position,” Coach Prime said in regards to Ayomanor’s performance.

Still, the Buffs had a chance to retaliate. However, a poor decision by quarterback Shedeur Sanders on third down resulted in an interception, setting up Karty and the Stanford Cardinal for a 31-yard game-winning field goal.

“It was just a dumb play,” Sanders said about his third interception of the season, “I just threw it up. Simple.”

As Karty inevitably nailed the chip shot field goal through the uprights, Colorado fell to Stanford, 46-43. The 29-point comeback was good for the largest blown lead in Buffs football history, as well as the largest comeback win in the existence of Cardinal football.

“You can’t understand how in the world that happens to us,” Coach Prime said, “But it did.”