BOULDER, Colo. — Stanford's Joshua Karty kicked a 31-yard field goal in overtime to complete a 29-point comeback win and shock the Colorado Buffaloes 46-43 on Friday night in front of a sellout crowd at Folsom Field.
Colorado scored touchdowns on their first four drives of the game, to take a commanding 29-0 lead into the locker room at halftime.
But the Cardinal (2-4, 1-3 PAC12) rallied in the second half, outscoring Colorado 36-7, thanks to quarterback Ashton Daniels — who threw three touchdown passes in the second half and one in overtime, and a defense that forced the Buffaloes to punt three times and turn it over on downs twice in the second half.
Daniels finished the night 27 of 45 for 396 yards. He also lead the team with 39 yards on 16 carries. Justin Lamson and Bryce Farrell both had rushing touchdowns for Stanford.
The momentum began to swing in Stanford's favor at the beginning of the second half, as Lance Keneley sacked Shedeur Sanders on a fourth down play to halt Colorado's opening drive of the third.
Seven plays later, Bryce Farrell scored from two yards out to cut the Buffaloes lead to 29-6.
Colorado (4-3, 1-3) would be forced to punt on their ensuing possession and give the ball back to Stanford at their own three.
On the very next play from scrimmage, Daniels would hit Elic Ayomanor for a 97-yard touchdown strike to cut the deficit to 29-12 with 6:18 left in the third quarter. Ayomanor would get his second score of the night on their next drive, on a 60-yard score to cut Colorado's down to just 29-19.
Ayomanor finished the night with 13 receptions for 294 yards — both game highs — and three touchdown catches.
Justin Lamson would later score on a one-yard run to cut Colorado's lead to 29-25 with 12:50 remaining in the game.
At that point, the raucous sold-out crowd had become nearly silent.
But that didn't last for long, as Sanders would finally engineer a scoring drive that covered 75-yards, that was capped off with a touchdown pass to Travis Hunter — who took a huge hit, but still hung on to the ball — to make it 36-26 and get back some of the momentum that had been lost.
But Stanford would just not go away, as they would put together a methodical 13-play drive that was capped off with another touchdown pass by Daniels to Bryce Farrell from 3-yards out to make it 36-33 with 5:06 remaining.
The defense again would force a punt, after Sanders would overthrow Hunter on a third-and-three play that would gave the Buffaloes a chance to run the clock out.
Stanford would get the ball back on their own one and Daniels would go to work, completing 6 of 10 passes on the drive, to get the Cardinal down to the Colorado 28 with five second remaining.
Karty would send the game into overtime with a 45-yard field goal and again bring the once rowdy crowd to a silence.
In overtime, Colorado would strike first as Sanders would hit Javon Antonio for a four-yard touchdown pass to take a 43-36 lead.
On Stanford's possession, Daniels would throw one up to Ayomanor, who would make an incredible play by catching the ball behind the defenders head, hold onto the ball, and back pedal into the end zone for the 30-yard score and tie the game back up.
On the Buffaloes second possession and facing a third-and-goal situation, Sanders would get flushed from the pocket and hurl a pass towards the end zone that would be intercepted by Alaka'i Gilman.
Stanford would go on offense, gain a first down and set up Karty's game-winner.
Sanders led the way for the Colorado offense in the losing effort. He completed 33 of 47 passes for 400 yards and five touchdowns.
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