Colorado Buffaloes head coach Deion Sanders took a lot of criticism for his decision to pass the ball four out of six plays on his team’s final offensive possession instead of simply running the ball and running the clock. But he defended that decision after the game.
Colorado had the ball up by five points with under two minutes remaining on the clock, but Deion Sanders elected to throw the ball four times instead of running the ball and keeping the clock moving. Sanders was bailed out for the controversial play-calling by a pass interference penalty that gave his team a first down. The first down should have effectively ended the game, but Sanders opted to throw two more times resulting in incompletions that forced his team to have to punt with 31 seconds left.
But Sanders defended the decision to go so pass-heavy on Thursday night.
“I mean, you’ve got to understand, you’ve got to take what people give you. You can’t take what you want and it’s not there,” Sanders said according to On3. “I mean, what is it, what he throw for, 445 yards – you think we upset? Who upset? ‘You didn’t have a running game’? Well, the passing game looked pretty darn good today so let’s be appreciative and thankful that we got one of the premier guys in college football spinning it.”
Sanders said the playcalling was a product of simply taking what the defense is giving.
“No, no – you want first downs. If you want to run the clock down, they’ve got a five-man box. That means they’ve got five down,” Sanders explained. “Like, you’ve got to look at that and say, okay, I got one-on-one right here. I haven’t seen one-on-one the whole game. I’ve got to do what I’ve got to do to move these chains. That’s what that is.”
Of course, the drawback to passing is that if the pass is incomplete, the clock stops. But when you run the ball, the clock keeps running even if the runner does not get much yardage.
Ultimately, Sanders and Colorado got the win and now begin the season 1-0.
[On3]
