Football and emotions don’t mesh well together. It’s a sport which entails a group of men looking to inflict pain on one another. Every down is a tryst with fate. Stepping into a game with undue baggage weighing on your mind is not a recipe for success. You’ve got to cut out the peripherals or the game will indeed let it be known why it demands your utmost energy and application. It would appear Deion Sanders and his Colorado Buffaloes didn’t quite abide by this tenet and faced the repercussions.

The Buffaloes were essentially domesticated on Saturday at the Alamo Bowl. They got blown out 36-14 by the BYU Cougars. One might say that the final scoreline still somehow flatters them. Heading into the game, the biggest storyline was the end of Heisman winner Travis Hunter, Shilo and Shedeur Sanders’ college careers. It was naturally an emotional affair for father-coach Deion. This was evidenced by his on-field interview before kickoff, where he was on the verge of tears. This flurry of emotions seemingly seeped into the performance. A performance which was brimming with incompetence, a total misrepresentation of Colorado football under Coach Prime. This was conspicuous to football HOFer and his confidant Shannon Sharpe.

In the aftermath of this drubbing down in San Antonio, Unc Shannon took to his Nightcap platform to discern on affairs. “BYU is not a slouch, but you’ve got to have a better effort than this. They were never in the game,” he said. “You give up a punt return for a touchdown. You give up an onside kick. It’s Coach Prime’s job to have this team prepared and ready to play better than what they showed up [with]. It’s really that simple.” After co-host Chad Johnson stated, “It looked as if they don’t belong”, Shannon concurred. “I thought the exact same thing,” he resounded.

The issue is that Colorado has shown through the season that it belonged on this stage. Losing to BYU is not an indictment. The Cougars are for real, and barring a couple of mishaps down the stretch were prancing towards an unbeaten season. They began the season 8-0 and were as high as 6th in the AP Poll at one stage. However, the manner of the loss is why Deion Sanders can’t be absolved. 

From the onset, there was an air of unpreparedness. A punt transpiring into a touchdown can be a freak incident. But giving up an onside kick in the first quarter? That’s a situation where BYU HC Kalani Sitake essentially flexed his coaching prowess at Deion’s expense. Some potency in garbage time, coupled with BYU kneeling out the clock in Colorado territory, saved Deion some face among the box-score watchers. But unfortunately for him, all this ensued under the national lens. While it’s rational to put the onus of this result on Coach Prime, the players didn’t do themselves justice either. Especially one of the departing superstars.

Deion Sanders wasn’t the only culprit for Colorado’s misdemeanors

Can’t ignore the elephant in the room. Shedeur Sanders, for the most part, was pretty substandard, to put it lightly. It’s only fair to cede that he was on an island out there. The O-line offered little to no protection, and Shedeur spent all evening dodging the BYU pass rush. That, in tandem with the fact they were in such a big deficit from the jump, was an unpalatable concoction. Shedeur needed to almost force the football downfield, and the risks weren’t coming off.

That would undercut one of his 2 thrown interceptions. Just pushing it into a non-existent space on the perimeter. His other pick wasn’t down to him at all, with the football bobbing up into a defender’s hand from a reception gone wrong. The biggest disappointment via Shedeur was some of the sacks. As aforementioned, he didn’t have great protection. However, he hasn’t really had it all year. The epitomization of his errors, and one that’s a microcosm for where things began going south for Colorado, came about early in the 2nd quarter.

Down 10-0, Colorado was in the red zone with a chance to make it 10-7. On 3rd and 3, Shedeur took an ill-timed 23-yard sack which was avoidable. This put the Buffs out of easy field goal range. An opportunity to make it a one-score game vanquished. BYU ended the quarter ahead 20-0, and the game was basically over. 

Deion Sanders will face the proverbial music from the skeptics for this result, and rightly so. As a guy who wears his heart on his sleeve, he perhaps let the ancillaries and departing players overcome him. After Shannon Sharpe’s decree, one thing remains a certainty. Coach Prime will be his own harshest critic and reflect upon what went wrong.