QB Sanders, Hunter help Buffs hold off N.D. State
BOULDER, Colo. — Shedeur Sanders was just trying to be the nice guy and get his teammate a late touchdown. It nearly backfired.
Sanders threw for 445 yards and four touchdowns — three to Travis Hunter — and Colorado began Year 2 under coach Deion Sanders by holding off FCS power North Dakota State 31-26 on Thursday night.
But it was the pass Shedeur Sanders didn’t need to throw that raised some eyebrows.
With 1:41 left and a couple of run plays all that were necessary to run down the clock, Sanders tried to connect deep with LaJohntay Wester. He underthrew the pass and it wound up incomplete to stop the clock.
Deion Sanders’ fatherly advice: no more Mr. Nice Guy.
“Shedeur’s such a good kid, sometimes it costs him,” the coach said. “That’s his character. I’m like, ‘Come on, Dawg, not right now. It’s not time to be the good guy right now. It’s time to put this game away.'”
North Dakota State got the ball back with 31 seconds left. As time expired, Cam Miller launched a pass from his own 47 that was caught by Tyler Terhark 4 yards short of the end zone.
“You ever feel like you won but you didn’t win?” said Deion Sanders, whose team was a 10½-point favorite. “Let’s move on from that. I’m going to try my best to hold back my anger. But we got a ‘W’ so I’m happy.”
The methodical play of the Bison in the first half helped keep Heisman Trophy hopeful Sanders and the Colorado offense on the sideline. But once Sanders was out there, he went to work.
Jimmy Horn Jr. had seven catches for 198 yards and a score, and Hunter hauled in seven passes for 132 yards.
Hunter’s acrobatic, 3-yard TD with a defensive back draped on him gave Colorado a 31-20 lead with 7:57 left. He celebrated by spinning the ball and doing a dance. Hunter still had that much energy despite playing all game at cornerback, too.
The play of Hunter caught the attention of NBA great LeBron James, who wrote on social media: “MAN TRAVIS HUNTER IS RIDICULOUS!!!!! WOW.”
Like Sanders, Hunter is mentioned in Heisman conversations.
Sanders finished 26-of-34 passing with an interception. He has thrown for 955 yards and eight TDs in two openers at Colorado (he had 510 yards last season at TCU).
“It was cool,” Sanders said about his big night. “But every incompletion, it hurts me inside a little bit. I’m excited for the win, but [there are] definitely situations in that game I personally could’ve handled better.”
This version of the Buffaloes’ offense looked a whole lot like last season, with a terrifying passing game but virtually no ground attack. Colorado was outrushed 157-59 on Thursday night. The overhauled offensive line gave up only one sack, but Sanders spent quite a bit of time scrambling.
The Colorado defense remains a work in progress under new defensive coordinator Robert Livingston. Miller scored on a 20-yard scramble to make it 31-26 with 2:19 left. His pass on a two-point conversion was incomplete.
“There’s nothing good about losing,” Miller said. “But I do feel like offensively and defensively, this is going to give us a lot of confidence.”
New North Dakota State coach Tim Polasek had his team on the cusp of an upset. The Bison led 20-17 at halftime with Miller orchestrating the offense to near perfection. He finished with two rushing TDs and threw for another. The Bison showed a national audience precisely why they are ranked No. 2 in the FCS preseason polls.
“The difference in the game comes down to they made a few more plays than we did,” Polasek said. “I really believe that.”
The defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers are rolling. The Carolina Hurricanes are reeling.
Sam Bennett scored one of his two goals in Florida’s three-goal first period, Sergei Bobrovsky made 17 saves, and the Panthers beat the Hurricanes 5-0 on Thursday night to take a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference finals.
Gustav Forsling and Matthew Tkachuk also scored in another tone-setting opening 20 minutes for the Panthers, while Carter Verhaeghe had three assists in the win.
“It might have been natural for us to take a little bit to get going tonight, and it was the exact opposite,” said Tkachuk, whose putaway off the feed from Verhaeghe at the crease marked his first goal since Game 3 of the first round against the Tampa Bay Lightning. “It was an unreal start from us. The goals aside, just the way we played in the first period was as good as it gets. Yeah, that’s just a hell of a road trip.”
Florida had already ripped home-ice advantage away Tuesday night with a 5-2 win, the opener in a rematch of the 2023 conference finals swept by the Panthers with four one-goal wins. Florida tightened its grip on the series with this one and now heads back south to host Game 3 on Saturday night.
Bennett scored a second time by skating in to clean up an attempt at the right post in the final minute of the second period to make it 4-0, ending a long shift in Carolina’s end prolonged by Hurricanes defenseman Brent Burns being stuck on the ice after breaking his stick. Aleksander Barkov added a goal midway through the third as punctuation.
Bobrovsky had his third shutout of the playoffs this year and the sixth of his career, with Florida’s defense smothering a Carolina team that typically peppers the net with shots but found little daylight.
Florida has won four straight road games by a combined score of 22-4, this time sending Hurricanes fans fleeing for the exits early.
“It’s fun when you’re on the road and it goes quiet,” Verhaeghe said. “It feels like we’re doing our job.”
It wasn’t all great news for Florida. Veteran forward Sam Reinhart was knocked from the game in the first period after taking a hit from Sebastian Aho in the left leg, causing Reinhart’s knee to bend awkwardly.
Panthers coach Paul Maurice said after the game that Reinhart would be evaluated Friday and that there would be no update on Reinhart’s status until Saturday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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