ESPN 20th Anniv 5th Down 

The ref was so worried about the Missouri fan having a heart attack he decided to kill him by letting Colorado win.

Just tonight, in the NFL, the AFC Championship game featured a 5th down. The Chiefs got a 5th down vs. the Bengals. Eric Bieniemy was a Colorado Buffalo RB back then, and he is currently the Offensive Coordinator of the Chiefs. Hmmmm!!!!! Charles Johnson, QB of the Buffaloes died by suicide back in July, 2022. May he RIP.

one of the wackiest sports stories of all time. Refs distracted by a new rule and a fan’s heart attack behind the bench accidentally give CU a bonus chance to win, which they do on their way to a share of the national championship

The 5th down was just ONE of THREE massive officiating errors made at the end of that game. 1) CU spiked the ball on 4th down, and then got a 5th down 2) Before that, CU got stuffed at the line and had no timeouts left- but for some reason the clock stopped at 8 seconds remaining, and stayed stopped for a good 5 seconds, giving CU time to line up and spike the ball to stop the clock (even though it was on 4th down) 3) Even with 5 downs, CU never crossed the goal line. Johnson's butt was on the ground BEFORE he reached the ball over his head and stretched it across the line. Multiple camera angles and photographs CLEARLY prove that.

That's some Soviet-era shit right there. They would've given them a 6th down if they hadn't scored.

And Georgia Tech should have been #1 in both AP and Coach's Polls instead of splitting the title with Colorado.

Plus that wasn't a TD even on "fifth down," he was stopped.

Dude I'm a Jayhawk fan, and I'll admit it, Missouri got screwed over. This win should be taken away from Colorado.

It's just amazing that everyone didn't know what the down was. I mean you would never see that in today's football where there is replay especially in college.

the stink of all this is he didnt even break the plane until he was laying on his back and extended the ball, great phototgraphic evidence of it .

Aside from the 5th down, why was the clock stopped???

Everyone knows Colorado didn't score on 5th down either.

“The down marker correctly showed second down…” *Hi-lights video showing down marker CLEARLY displaying 3rd down.. Lol!! I dont think ANYONE, including the narrator or ref’s know whats going on with these plays!

Should have never had been allowed. It was head official Louderbacks job to correct it but he didn't. A sad day in football history to allow an error to stand.

Not just a 5th down. They stopped the clock for no reason at all, gave them the 5th down, and ruled it a touchdown when it clearly was not. Hmmm . . . totally not suspicious at all

That running back for Colorado is Future Washington Commanders (Hate that name) Coach Eric Bieniemy. He won 2 Super Bowls as Andy Reid's OC for the Kansas City Chiefs, and created arguably the greatest Quarterback of All Time, Patrick Mahomes II.

1990 Colorado is still by far the most undeserving national championship team. Had both one loss and one tie and obviously avoided another loss due to a mistake by the officials. Georgia Tech was the only unbeaten team that year. They should have been #1 in both polls.

An interesting aspect of this that rarely gets mentioned, and didn't get mentioned in this 20-year anniversary lookback, was that Charles Johnson, the Colorado QB, didn't get the ball across the goal line on the fifth down. If you watch up-close replays, he got hit before the goal line, and he immediately went down, which was when it was ruled a touchdown, b/c he reached the ball over the line. The problem was, when he was hit, his body folded backward, so he hit the ground w/ his back, and he was on the ground well before reaching the ball toward the goal line. The worst part of this was that Colorado shared in the National Championship w/ GaTech. Colorado had one other loss and a tie, and this regardless of how the refs ruled it, should've been considered a loss by poll voters. They lost this game but were given credit for the win, and it was later dismissed, and they won a share of an undeserved national title.

When did Jefferson City stop being the capital of Missouri?

I'm not a fan of either team; I say they should have just gone back to the two second mark when Colorado spiked the ball and given possession to Missouri. Reset the clock for two seconds, and then have MU do whatever to run it out. Ridiculous how they just gave the win to Colorado even after realizing they were wrong.

I think Johnson did get in... Colorado has to be the luckiest National Championship team ever. A loss to Illinois, a tie against Tennessee, this game, a clipping penalty called on Rocket's punt return in the Orange Bowl... At least they had to share the title with Georgia Tech.

Did he just say that Columbia, MO is the state capital??

They didn't mention that Charles Johnson DIDN'T EVEN GET IN THE END ZONE on 5th down. Picture from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/stltoday.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/4/30/430bc0fc-d074-11df-a100-00127992bc8b/4cab0cd9c0cb0.preview-300.jpg

Featuring Colorado running back Eric "Sleeping With" Bieniemy.

@divey043 - Correct. 1940 or 1941, I believe. The difference is that, in the Dartmouth vs Cornell game, Cornell, which had the benefit of the 5th down winning score, later forfeited the game to Dartmouth after seeing the film. No such sportsmanship from Colorado in the 1990 5th down game.

It's not as simple as people want to believe. If the referees had done their job, obviously Colorado wouldn't have spiked the ball on 4th down. Their entire play calling would have changed from second down (when the mistake was made), and no one knows what would have really happened.

As terrible as that omniturf was in 1990. They used that same turf for four more years before going to grass in 1995.

*I thought it was only the Cheatriots who got rewarded 5th downs !*

Chris Fowler is a Buff!

But Bobby Bowden gets wins taken away for a kid cheating on a test in school?

20 minutes was plenty of time to watch the sequence of plays. The ref actually said there is no “evidence” of a 5 downs?

Total BS! B/c of that GT had to share a national championship!

so the dude having a heart attack gave CU a national title...aint that a thing

Yes it is.

I don't think he scored on the last play, but why did they stop the clock while guys unpiled, as they clock should have ran out and never should have time for a 5th down!

Looking back, the fix had to be in! Even the announcers were in on it.

Never say never. Stranger things have happened and anything is possible. Imagine if there was a break down in the replay equipment or the radio equipment. Whenever there is a tech breakdown they go back to the old standbys. Just like when the clock malfunctions, what do the refs do? They keep time on the field manually. If something should go wrong with the score board in this situation and no replay available. You would have the set up for it to happen again. Unlikely, but not impossible.

To be fair, not running the clock down is more egregious. Because if CU would have known that it was 3rd down after the timeout, they would have called a different play, and thrown it. Not saying they would have been successful, but they called a running play because they thought it was 2nd down. Also, Johnson of course wasn't in. Not even close. I have never liked Mizzou - but this and the flea kicker, I feel bad for them

Tainted national champs.

how is it, the the announcers didn't know? I was waiting to hear THEM....but they were as clueless as EVERYONE ELSE!

How in the world wasn't Montgomery fired from the chain crew? If he had any respect for the program, he would have resigned.

The Fix was in

We told the linesman what the downs were and he told us to shut up.

In our family, we refer to that behavior by the officials as “playing in the lovelies”

lol i remember seeing this

Hero hugo

@redmustang03 - Many, including Missouri assistant coaches knew that CU would be given a 5th down. Inexplicably, the MU head coach, at the time, Bob Stull, did not take action to stop it from happening, as you can see in another clip on my channel. You're right, this couldn't happen today.

Five More Downs! Five More Downs! Five More Downs!

Too bad the new spike rules were not in effect, now you can't spike with less than 3 seconds. On what was fourth down they Colorado spiked it with 2 seconds left.

so only colorado players slipped? of course i remember when iowa state used to water the field before every nebraska game!

I see the pro-CU favoritism goes back to long before their PAC 12 days. Go CSU Rams! :(

Lets just say hypothetically there was no error on the clock, down marker, and officials and the downs were properly counted. Do you think that CU would have spiked the ball on 4th down? heck i doubt CU would have run the ball on 3rd down. Colorado was in the same situation earlier in the year against Stanford. On 3rd down CU threw the ball, and on 4th down they ran it and then scored for the win. Colorado was duped as well. So to say that had they done their job it would be a different outcome is tough to say; because people forget situational football. Would CU have scored? we dont know, but its not as black and white as people make it out to be.

And guess who benefited the most? That's right: the head Promise Keepers freak.

On the 50? Your standing on thev1 in a screaming stadium.

Whoops

Whoa whoa...why did the refs stop the clock...?!

never say never. the redskins got won in 2010 late vs the bucs. the refs messed up the chains in the sc michigan game this year. humans make mistakes

Looks like mitch montgomery is the main one to blame.

No problem here. If the referee told McCartney he only had 2 plays left, he would've called rush, rush instead of rush, spike, rush.

I knew about the 5th down, and I didn't think that the Colorado QB got in. I had never noticed that the clock was stopped after Bienemy's run on 2nd (should have been 3rd) down. Missouri got hosed every way imaginable here. Also, there was no clipping on Rocket's punt return in the Orange Bowl. Georgia Tech should have been the undisputed national champions.

I’d knock that ref out on the spot

Things like the 5th down are why I love college football. These type of stories are amazing.

He didn't even score on top of all,the other b.s.!

Bob Stull- "doesn't matter, we have to stop them the next play". Reason why he never was a decent coach. You, as the head coach, have to yell and DEMAND that the refs stop the play clock and look into whether it was 4th or 5th down. What a gutless turd.

McCartney was quit a piece of work. Had a player knock up his daughter then talked the player outta marrying her!

Clock stopped by stupid refs. Miami was the best team that year and would have smashed cu had they played in the orange bowl.

This doesn't make sense. Would it be fair to tell Colorado after the spike, "Sorry, that was fourth down, you lose"? After third down, you are supposed to get one more chance to score. Colorado did get one more chance to score. What is the big deal?

Both team have sucked for years. I'm glad Mizzou is in the Sec they ate a punching bag lol. And by the way Mizzou was going nowhere that year so why even be mad

Too many people bet on Missouri. ESPN does their best to excuse this as a gaffe. Once in a while something this flagrant happens and everybody pretends it's some fluke, but the truth is the gambling community has their hand in the outcome of a few games every year, this being one, Green Bay at Seattle a few years ago is another good example.

So stupid. THEY DIDN'T GET AN EXTRA CHANCE TO SCORE

Everybody likes to bitch and complain that Colorado shouldn't have won this game because of the 5th down, but what nobody talks about is that Colorado was trying to run an option attack on a crappy turf with a back-up quarterback. They were slipping and sliding all game long. In fact on the final drive right before Colorado started the 5th down series Colorado's tight end caught a pass on the 3 yard line and had nobody between himself and the goal line, but when he turned up field he slipped. On a better field he would have scored and game would have never come down to a 5th down. Also had Colorado played on a better field and had their starting quarterback they probably would have scored more points and the game would not have come down to the last play. I think Missouri's advantage (Colorado playing with a back-up quarterback and on crappy turf) equals out Colorado's advantage (The Ref's giving Colorado a Fifth Down on the Final Play) Colorado should not have won this game because of the 5th down, but had they played on better turf the game wouldn't have come down to the 5th down.

The refs are human they make mistakes all the time colorado. Was the better teAm period if that field was better were not even talking 5 th down colorado blows them out by 30 points or the tight end walks into end zone easy for the win