Fifth Down Game (1990) - Game Recap

Game Recap

The game pitted the Colorado Buffaloes (CU) against their Big Eight Conference rival, the Missouri Tigers (MU), and was played on October 6, 1990 in front of a crowd of 46,856. The game was played at Faurot Field, Missouri's home stadium in Columbia, Missouri. Colorado's starting quarterback, Darian Hagan, was injured and backup quarterback Charles Johnson, who had some playing time the previous week and season, played the game. However, Colorado was still heavily favored to win. Colorado was ranked #12 by the Associated Press in the nation while Missouri was unranked (i.e. below the top 25). Colorado's record coming into the game was 3–1–1 (three wins, one loss, one tie) with wins over #12 Washington and #20 Texas ranked teams and unranked Stanford; their loss to the #21 ranked Illinois team and the tie to #8 Tennessee. Missouri was 2–2 (two wins, two losses) coming in to the game with wins over #21 Arizona State and unranked Utah State and losses to unranked TCU and Indiana.

The lead in this game changed several times, and several big plays kept the momentum swinging. With less than three minutes to go, Colorado took possession of the ball deep in its own territory trailing 31–27. Johnson led the team on a last-ditch drive. With about 40 seconds to go, he completed a pass to Colorado tight end Jon Boman who fell down just yards short of the goal line. Boman slipped due to the poor conditions of the field. This play gave the Buffaloes a first down, but it led to immediate confusion because the Buffs were running a hurry-up offense.

On first down, Johnson spiked the ball to stop the clock. On second down, a power run into the line by Eric Bieniemy was stopped just short of the goal line. Colorado then called its third and final timeout. During the timeout, the officiating crew failed to flip the down marker to note that it was now third down. On the next play, with the down marker showing second down when it was really third down, the Buffaloes made the same call and Bieniemy was again stopped short of the end zone. Johnson then spiked the ball (thinking it was third down when it was really fourth) to stop the clock with two seconds left. He later claimed that he had no idea the officials had made a mistake, and believed he was spiking the ball on third down. On the following play – fourth down according to the marker, but "fifth down" in reality – Johnson kept the ball himself. Although he did not break the plane of the goal line, the officials awarded Colorado a touchdown.

Referee J. C. Louderback and the Big Eight officiating crew conferred for nearly 20 minutes to decide their course of action. During the delay, radio and television announcers noticed that Colorado had scored with the help of an additional play. Louderback was shown on the phone. After a lengthy consultation, the referees announced their decision: It was a touchdown, and Colorado would now have to run the extra-point conversion. Not wanting to take any risks with only a two-point lead, the Buffaloes snapped the ball and downed it to end a controversial 33-31 contest.