So much for Cinderella.
Oregon showed the college football universe they’re a legitimate contender while Colorado may have showed who they really are as the Ducks routed Coach Deion Sanders and his Buffaloes 42-6 in front of nearly 60,000 inside Autzen Stadium.
For the first three weeks of the college football season, Colorado was the talk of all national media as the Buffaloes, once a 1-11 team, won their first three games including a solid win over TCU in the season opener.
But with all of the attention heaped on Coach Prime over the last few weeks, it appeared the Ducks may have taken all the hype a bit personally and they certainly took it out on visitors.
The Ducks scored on their first five drives and took a 35-0 halftime lead and they rolled from there.
Quarterback Bo Nix was nearly perfect, going 28-of-33 for 278 yards, three touchdowns and an interception. Receiver Troy Franklin caught eight passes for 126 yards and two touchdowns. Tight end Casey Kelly caught the other scoring pass.
Besides the three scores through the air, Nix also had an 11-yard touchdown run to end the first-half scoring.
Colorado elected to kick the ball off to begin the game and that was its first mistake.
The Ducks took the ball and easily went 72 yards in 10 plays with Noah Whittington making his way into the end zone to crack the scoreboard first.
The Ducks would crack the scoreboard five more times before Colorado ended the potential shutout towards the end of the contest.
A one-yard touchdown pass to Casey Kelly made it 13-0, but the two-point conversion was no good.
Oregon made up for that one with the next touchdown drive as Nix found Franklin on a 16-yard touchdown. Nix also found his favorite receiver in the end zone for the two-points and the 21-0 lead.
The game was practically over at that point as the Buffalo offense couldn’t muster up anything. Through two and half quarters, Colorado had 34 total yards and quarterback Shedeur Sanders had defenders in his face on almost every play. He was sacked seven times for the game.
It was 28-0 when Nix found Franklin again for a 36-yard touchdown in the second quarter.
The Ducks might have let up some in the second half, but it was 42-0 with nine minutes to go in the third quarter. It could have been worse for the Buffaloes, however.
Nix was picked off as he missed an open Franklin that would have been a score and Oregon turned it over on downs inside the five-yard line.
Colorado’s only score came with less than three minutes to go, but to add insult to injury, Oregon blocked the extra point.
Now Oregon will prepare for what might be the worst team in the conference and a trip to Palo Alto to play Stanford. Assuming they go 5-0, the Ducks have a bye week before going to Seattle to face a great Huskies team.