Sports

Deion Sanders Won’t Take Blame For Late Game Blunder Despite Being Wrong

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Colorado football coach Deion Sanders on the field.

© Troy Taormina-Imagn Images


Colorado football nearly pulled off a Week 1 upset of Georgia Tech in Boulder. The Buffs fell 27-20 after a late Yellow Jackets touchdown run.

The offense had a chance to tie things up with just over a minute left on the clock and a pair of timeouts. The operation was botched. Deion Sanders will not be held accountable.

The game started with a bang for the Buffs, who forced three turnovers on their first three defensive drives. Unfortunately, they were only able to turn it into seven points.

The inability to capitalize allowed the Yellow Jackets to hang around. They eventually took a 13-10 lead just before halftime.

Colorado continued to battle. Transfer quarterback Kaidon Salter tied the game with a touchdown run midway through the fourth quarter.

Georgia Tech’s Haynes King responded with a 45-yard scoring scamper of his own to give his team its final lead. The Buffs were unable to recover.

Deion Sanders’ clock management was questioned.

Colorado had 1:07 remaining in the fourth quarter when it took over on its final drive. Time expired after six plays.

The Buffs gained 25 yards to get in position for a Hail Mary. Most believe they should’ve gotten closer.

The team had two timeouts, which the coaching staff refused to use. A two-yard loss on the first play ate up 15 seconds. An 11-yard completion on the next play fell just shy of a first down.

Colorado did not use a timeout. The clock was down to 28 seconds by the next snap. Kaidon Salter then ran for a first down but went sideways in the process.

Three plays. Fifty seconds burned. No timeouts used.

Deion Sanders addressed the criticism after the game. He had a poor recollection of what transpired in those final moments.

“I think we got out of bounds a couple of times,” he said in a postgame press conference. “We didn’t have to take them. That’s what transpired. We got out of bounds I think on both sidelines. That’s what happened.

“After the first, I think we got a good play and we caught the ball, I think, for nine yards. We had one yard to go, so if you get the first down, the clock stops. It don’t make sense to really use your timeout in that sense.”

Coach Prime was wrong.

The Buffs did not get out of bounds on the plays that mattered, at least not until the damage had been done. Sanders probably should’ve used a timeout on the third down play with 40 seconds remaining in the game.

The decision not to allowed another 22 ticks to run from the clock before they picked up a first down.

Taking a timeout before 3rd and 1 would’ve given the coaching staff an opportunity to both call a third down play and a have a first down play ready with the clock momentarily stopped.

It might also have kept Salter from running sideline to sideline to pick up the first down, which only burned more of those precious seconds.

Deion Sanders still refuses to take accountability. He doubled down on his stance this week.

“Okay, let’s just get the cat out of the bag,” he said while addressing the media. “First down, we throw a lateral pass, right? We lose, what, four or five yards? Do you call a timeout there? No, you’re right there. You don’t call a timeout, you’ve gotta go. You’re running tempo.

“The next play, you gain, I guess 14 yards. Now you’ve got 3rd-and-1. Do you call a timeout there? Third-and-one, you get the timeout there, the clock stops. Correct? So, you get the first down… So, when was the time to call timeout?”

Sanders will not take blame for the clock mismanagement. He was wrong in his postgame assessment of how the final moments played out. He continued to defend his actions after seeing what actually transpired.