Fifth Down Game (1990)
| The Fifth Down Game | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Date | October 6, 1990 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Season | 1990 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Stadium | Faurot Field | ||||||||||||||||||
| Location | Columbia, Missouri | ||||||||||||||||||
The Fifth Down Game was a college football game that included a play that the crew officiating the game permitted to occur in error. That play enabled the Colorado Buffaloes to defeat the Missouri Tigers by scoring a touchdown on the last play of their game on October 6, 1990. The ensuing controversy cast doubt on Colorado's claim to Division I-A's 1990 national championship, which it shares with the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. It has been called one of the top memorable moments and blunders in college football history.
In American football, a team is allowed four attempts or "downs" to move the ball 10 yards (9.14 m) towards the goal line. If the offense moves ten yards in four attempts or fewer, it gains a "first down," which restarts the process. If, after four attempts, the offense has neither scored nor gained ten yards, the other team is given possession of the ball. Under normal circumstances (for example, excluding penalties which can involve replaying a down), no team is supposed to be allowed five attempts. In this game, due to an officiating error, Colorado was given a fifth consecutive down which they used to score the game-winning touchdown as time expired.
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 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 into the game with wins over #21 Arizona State and unranked Utah State and losses to unranked TCU and Indiana.
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