TEMPE, AZ – On one of the hottest days of fall in Southern Arizona, the Colorado Buffaloes snuck out of Tempe with a 27-24 comeback victory over Arizona State at Mountain America Stadium thanks to the clutch gene of Shedeur Sanders, and the right leg of sophomore kicker Alejandro “Money” Mata.

Saturday’s victory for the Buffs was not their prettiest win of the season, but in a conference that’s as talented and competitive as the Pac-12, a win is a win, no matter how it happens.

“Wonderful win,” Coach Prime said. “[We] played like hot garbage and I’m trying to figure this out….I’m sick of us coming out here and putting forth the effort we put forth in the first half.”

The Buffs started the day off by winning their seventh consecutive coin toss (six pregame, one overtime), but deferred to the defense who let up an opening drive touchdown for the third straight week.

The Sun Devils marched 66 yards down the field in nine plays, capping off the drive with a QB sneak out of a variation of the “swinging gate” formation. Arizona State gave the Buffs a headache all afternoon with their variety of trick plays and formations.

For the whole game, Arizona State was able to utilize their Swiss Army knife, Cameron Skattebo, in a multitude of ways to confuse the Buffs’ defense. He would line up in the backfield, out wide at receiver, and even punted the ball once.

Whenever Skattebo was on the field, CU had to be locked in mentally to prepare for what he brought to the table.

When the Buffs’ offense got the ball, they went three-and-out, giving the ball right back to Arizona State and putting themselves in a hole early. This was the third straight week where Colorado gave up a touchdown on the opening drive and followed it with a short offensive drive.

“Their [defensive coordinator} had a game plan versus us,” Sanders said. Despite putting 27 on the board, there were multiple points in the game where the CU offense was stagnant, such as the first drive where the ASU defense stifled Sanders and the Buffs’ offense.

However, after the defense got a quick stop, the gears on Sean Lewis’ offense started to turn. Colorado had their longest drive of the season in terms of yards and plays, going 75 yards in 16 plays to knot the game even at seven.

The drive was punctuated on a fourth-and-1 goal line situation as Lewis drew up yet another creative red zone play. Wide receiver Xavier Weaver took a handoff from Sanders on a quick sweep off the left end of the line and walked in untouched while Buffs’ defensive linemen Bishop Thomas and Shane Cokes led the way with key lead blocks.

There were no other scoring plays in the first quarter, but by the end of the period, CU had burned all of its timeouts, further raising questions about their clock management issues that started to circle in last week’s loss versus USC.

Midway through the second quarter, the Sun Devils took the lead back on a nine-play, 59-yard drive that was kept alive thanks to lots of poor tackling from the Colorado defense.

Shedeur Sanders got the ball in his hands with 2:59 left in the half, down by seven, and knew he had to go to work. Orchestrating a hyper-efficient 81-yard drive, Sanders capped it off by utilizing his legs to scramble to the left of his broken-down pocket and scamper into the end zone.

The Buffs defense couldn’t hold the tie going into the half, allowing Arizona State to convert a 33-yard field goal to take a 17-14 lead going into the break. In the first half, the Buffs forced zero turnovers, had zero sacks, and played a very undisciplined brand of football.

Both defenses came out strong to start the second half, as the first four drives of the half resulted in punts. On one of those drives for the Buffs, Sanders missed two open receivers on a seam and a screen play which would’ve resulted in big gains.

On Arizona State’s second drive of the half, their starting cornerback, Ed Woods, was ejected from the game for targeting for throwing a block on a punt return. He had already tallied three tackles and a pass breakup, and his absence would be felt later on.

The following drive, Sanders seemed to ignite his teammates with a play where he lowered his shoulder into an ASU defender instead of sliding. He let out a massive scream filled with emotion after delivering the hit.

The 61-yard drive was finished off by a nine-yard touchdown from graduate transfer Javon Antonio, who was able to create separation on a slant route and muscle his way into the end zone, giving the Buffs their first lead of the day.

The CU defense stood tall on the following possession, forcing the Sun Devils to punt it to Weaver, who returned the punt for 51 yards and would’ve scored if the ASU punter hadn’t tripped him up. This gave the Buffs’ offense the ball in field goal range.

The Colorado offense wasn’t able to move the ball, but Mata was able to muster up just enough leg to get a 42-yard field goal over the crossbar, extending the lead to 24-17.

Arizona State’s next drive showed promise, but stalled out in plus-territory, ending with no points as freshman cornerback Carter Stoutmire was able to get a piece of the 52-yard field goal attempt.

CU couldn’t get anything going on their next drive, but a fantastic punt by junior punter Mark Vassett pinned the Sun Devils at their six-yard line. Down by seven, ASU had to go 94 yards in just under three and a half minutes.

12 plays and 79 yards later, Arizona State had first down at the CU 15-yard line after a series of poor tackling, soft coverages, and penalties from the Buffs as the defense provided no resistance on the potential game-tying drive.

The stadium sounded like Folsom Field, as the Buffs fans who made the trip to Tempe were doing all they could to make noise and disrupt the Sun Devil offense. Junior quarterback Trenton Bourget wasn’t phased.

Bourget took the snap, looked right, and lofted a perfect pass into the corner of the end zone where junior receiver Troy Omeire climbed the ladder to catch the pass for a touchdown. The extra point was good, and the game was tied.

“There’s no way a team should drive [94] yards on us to tie the game,” Coach Prime said.

However, there were still 50 seconds left on the clock, and as seen previously in the Colorado State game, that was plenty of time for Shedeur Sanders and the Buffaloes’ offense.

“It was like practice,” Sanders said. “Just trusting the play call…they left too much time on the clock and we knew that.”

On the first play of the drive, Antonio got behind the defense, and Sanders found him for a 43-yard gain. Antonio didn’t play much in the first three quarters but finished the game with five catches for 81 yards and a touchdown. Last week it was Omarion Miller who stepped up, and this week it was Antonio.

“It’s just about who’s going and whose day it is,” Sanders said. He gave credit to how deep the Colorado wide receiver room is, adding that everyone is always ready when their number is called.

CU’s offense got the ball to the ASU 25-yard line on the drive, setting up Mata for a field goal that was almost identical to his first make of the game.

The snap and the hold were perfect, and Mata booted it down the middle and into the net to put the Buffs on top. The stadium erupted into cheers as the Buffaloes’ fans had taken over, and Mata did his dance after essentially sealing the win for Colorado.

“Mata don’t miss,” Coach Prime said.

The CU defense held strong for the final nine seconds, officially sealing the deal on a comeback victory. Despite it being arguably the ugliest win for the Buffs this season, this one was pivotal to getting back on track after the previous two weeks.

Sanders knew that his team was going to be able to pull off the comeback saying, “If we got a chance, we’re going to win.”

The Buffs have plenty of things they need to continue to try and clean up if they want to make a bowl game this season. They had 1.9 yards per rush, committed eight penalties that were accepted, and allowed eight sacks, which is an issue that has been a problem all year.

“[Shedeur] is upset with hit after hit after hit,” Coach Prime said. “You think he’s happy being the most sacked guy in college football?”

The offensive line and special teams will be the two units to watch going forward, as they are by far the two weakest units on this Buffs team.

The Buffaloes (4-2) are back at Folsom Field next week, as they host the Stanford Cardinals (1-3) on Friday at 8 p.m. MST on ESPN.