Colorado didn’t just lose to Northwestern. They got bullied and smacked around for four quarters. It wasn’t even close. And if you watched that game with any context, it looked like a team that quit on its own squad. It looked like Colorado didn’t even want to be there.

Players were laughing after the loss. Deion Sanders talked about it in his own press conference. That’s the part that should concern you the most.

“I don’t understand that. I can’t never understand that,” Sanders said. “Because I want to win every darn thing, and I can’t understand how in the world, do you find joy, or you could find a laughing matter when I’m right behind you walking in? I don’t understand that. And I addressed it. And I’m gonna put my foot in it, not on it.”

The Baylor game is a make-or-break moment for Deion Sanders’ time in Colorado

Going into this week’s game against Baylor, it’s hard not to see this as one of the most pivotal games of the Deion Sanders era, even though it may not get the national media attention Colorado has drawn in years past. If they can’t show a pulse against a Baylor team that will more than likely have a backup quarterback in, this team might be cooked.

And you may say, Teagan, well, they beat Georgia Tech. Why are we not giving them credit for a win they had early in the season? Here’s the reality. Georgia Tech was overranked. Georgia Tech was overhyped. That team is not as good as we originally thought. Looking back at that win now, it’s less impressive.

It’s not Colorado’s fault. The Buffaloes did their job. They won the football game. They showed a ton of life. But we had this preconceived expectation of them, and it honestly sounds familiar, because a Week 1 victory that gets a Colorado team a little bit overhyped does that not sound like the first year of Deion Sanders?

This isn’t personal, but there has to be a standard

Now I want to be clear. If you think this is a personal attack on Deion, it’s not. I’m not saying the man should be fired. He’s done incredible things for the university, bringing in money and media attention to the program at a level it had never seen before. But at what point is there going to be a standard for Colorado to build from? I talked about it in the offseason, and I felt like this past weekend answered the question in the worst possible way.

The way Colorado lost to Northwestern felt like so many steps back. It looked like a program that didn’t have an identity, didn’t have a culture to build from. And to me, that’s my biggest red flag with this team outside of the box score and whatever you may look at with the talent on the roster. I just don’t see a program that is making steps and strides from the outside looking in.

That Baylor game will tell us everything. If Colorado comes out flat again against a team it should handle, the hot seat conversation won’t just be me asking the question. It’ll be impossible to ignore.