Buffs fans, Ms. Peggy is going to a bowl game.

Colorado clinched bowl eligibility for the first time since 2020 on Saturday night, improving to 6-2 on the season with a convincing 34-23 win against Cincinnati in Boulder. Now that it has knocked that goal off the list, Colorado has its sights set on bigger prizes.

The Buffs are now one of just four teams that have zero or one losses in Big 12 play, putting them firmly in the race for the conference title. Iowa State and BYU are both still undefeated, while Kansas State survived a nail-biter against Kansas to stay just ahead of Colorado via the head-to-head tiebreaker. The Buffs don’t quite control their own destiny, but they are in a good spot heading into the bye week.

Saturday's game started off looking like it might be another late-night classic in Boulder. Colorado got the scoring started with a short touchdown pass to Travis Hunter — back at full strength after his shoulder injury — after a three-and-out. Cincinnati quickly answered with a balanced seven-play drive to knot things up at seven.

Pat Shurmur, Shedeur Sanders and Colorado had a great plan to attack the Cincinnati defense. After the Bearcats evened things up, the Buffs marched 90 yards in 12 plays and Sanders punched it in on a short scramble inside the red zone.

Cincinnati responded once again, giving the game the feel of an old-fashioned Big 12 shootout. It went on a long, sustained drive of its own and running back Evan Pryor muscled his way across the goal line to cap off a 13-yard run and tie things up at 14.

It wasn’t until the end of the first half that the Buffs were able to generate some separation. With Colorado leading 17-14, Cincinnati decided to go for a fourth-and-1 near midfield with under a minute to go until halftime. The Buffs weren’t ready to let Cincinnati steal any points before the half, as they stuffed quarterback Brendan Sorsby on a run up the middle to get the ball back to Sanders with just under a minute to work.

The connection between Sanders and Hunter was too strong to overcome once again, as the two hooked up on a 34-yard touchdown with just three seconds left in the first half to put the Buffs up by 10.

Colorado couldn’t double up at the start of the second half, but its defense got the Cincinnati offense off the field immediately so that Sanders could go back to work.

That’s exactly what he did. Sanders led the Buffs 62 yards in just six quick plays and let the ground game finish the game off with Isaiah Augustave punching in a 7-yard touchdown run to put the Buffs up 17 points and allow them to control the remainder of the game.

Cincinnati made a late push in the fourth quarter, cutting into the three-score deficit with a field goal and then driving down for a Joe Royer touchdown to cut the Colorado lead to 8 with 4 minutes to go.

Colorado started its 4-minute drill as only it could. Shedeur Sanders dropped back and launched a deep ball to Travis Hunter for a huge gain to get the Buffs past midfield. The drive stalled out, but Alejandro Mata squeaked a 47-yard field goal over the crossbar to put the game away for good.

The running game was one of the big stories in this one, as Augustave nearly became Colorado’s first 100-yard rusher since 2022. He finished the game with 91 yards and a touchdown on 22 carries.

Hunter’s Heisman campaign picked up right where it left off before his injury, as the two-way superstar caught nine balls for 153 yards and two touchdowns with four pass breakups on defense.

Colorado has a week off now before it heads to Lubbock for a stiff road test against Texas Tech on Nov. 9.

First quarter

COL 9:32: Travis Hunter 3-yard pass from Shedeur Sanders (Alejandro Mata kick), COL 7-0

CIN 6:01: Tony Johnson 6-yard pass from Brendan Sorsby (Nathan Hawks kick), tied 7-7

COL 0:00: Shedeur Sanders 4-yard run (Alejandro Mata kick), COL 14-7

Second quarter

CIN 9:31: Evan Pryor 13-yard run (Nathan Hawks kick), tied 14-14

COL 3:28: Alejandro Mata 29-yard field goal, COL 17-14

COL 0:03: Travis Hunter 34-yard pass from Shedeur Sanders (Alejandro Mata kick), COL 24-14

Third quarter

COL 5:41: Isaiah Augustave 7-yard run (Alejandro Mata kick), COL 31-14

Fourth quarter

CIN 9:20: Nathan Hawks 32-yard field goal, COL 31-17

CIN 3:51: Joe Royer 6-yard pass from Brendan Sorsby (2-point conversion failed), COL 31-23

COL 1:39: Alejandro Mata 47-yard field goal, COL 34-23

You can point to any aspect of this game as the reason Colorado won, but the secondary deserves a special mention. Colorado’s three top cornerbacks — DJ McKinney, Preston Hodge and Travis Hunter — were blanketed all over Cincinanti’s wideouts for the whole game, and Brendan Sorsby had a very hard time throwing the ball as a result.

McKinney had a massive pass breakup on an early third down that ended a drive. Hodge broke up a pair of passes himself, and Hunter finished the game with an astounding four PBU’s. Sorsby finished the game just 16 for 30 with 180 yards passing and a pair of touchdowns, but a lot of that came at the end with the Bearcats trailing by multiple scores. Cincinnati’s passing game was unable to get much going for most of the game.

The moment that separated the two teams came at the end of the first half. With Cincinnati trailing by three, Scott Satterfield went for a fourth-and-1 just across midfield. Cincinnati tried to run Brendan Sorsby up the middle, but he was stuffed for no gain.

Colorado got the ball back with just under a minute left, and Shedeur Sanders went to work. He got Colorado near field goal range before taking a shot down the right sideline to Travis Hunter for a long touchdown that gave Colorado a 10-point lead heading into halftime.

That final touchdown before the half was the highlight of this one offensively for the Buffs. In a series of events that is a bit unlike them this season, this game was more about down-to-down consistency rather than explosive plays and flashy highlights. Not only was this long touchdown one of the biggest plays of the night for CU, it was probably the most important.

The fourth-down stop just before the half was easily the biggest defensive play of this game. Defensive tackle Amari McNeill and Chidozie Nwankwo clogged the lanes in the middle, and Nikhai Hill-Green and Cam’Ron Silmon-Craig were right there to clean up the mess and get the Buffs off the field.

Interestingly enough, this game was similar on defense in the sense that the Buffs were sound for most of the night and executed well, but they didn't have any of the huge sack or turnover numbers that they have been posting lately.

This wasn’t a classic Shedeur Sanders game where the entire fate of the offense rested on his shoulders. The Buffs played balanced football Saturday; the offensive line played well, the running game was consistent and the receivers made plays after the catch all night long.

However, Sanders was extremely efficient and led the way for a Buffs offense that was extremely crisp and buttoned up. Sanders completed his first 15 passes of the game, a school record, and he finished the night 25 for 30 with 323 yards, two touchdowns and the offense averaged 6.3 yards per play. This was as much of a team effort as you can have, but it all starts with Sanders being as sharp as he was in this one.

Running back Micah Welch didn’t play in this one after being pulled from last week’s game against Arizona after just one carry. Welch has been nursing a hamstring injury for a few weeks now and will try to get healthy over the bye week. Defensive end Dayon Hayes also missed his third consecutive game with an injury.

Wide receiver Will Sheppard and defensive end Samuel Okunlola both were injured during the game, but both of them were able to return.

Colorado

Total Yards: 446

Passing

Shedeur Sanders: 25-for-30, 323 yards, 2 TD

Rushing

Isaiah Augustave: 22 carries, 91 yards, TD

Dallan Hayden: 10 carries, 36 yards

Shedeur Sanders: 5 carries, 1 yard, TD

Receiving

Travis Hunter: 9 catches, 153 yards, 2 TD

Jimmy Horn Jr.: 5 catches, 78 yards

LaJohntay Wester: 5 catches, 56 yards

Drelon Miller: 2 catches, 27 yards

Will Sheppard: 1 catch, 6 yards

Isaiah Augustave: 1 catch, 2 yards

Dallan Hayden: 2 catches, 1 yard

Cincinnati

Total yards: 351

Passing

Brendan Sorsby: 16-for-30, 180 yards, 2 TD

Rushing

Corey Kiner: 17 carries, 94 yards

Brendan Sorsby: 9 carries, 48 yards

Evan Pryor: 5 carries, 25 yards TD

Barry Jackson Jr.: 1 carry 4 yards

Receiving

Tony Johnson: 4 catches, 50 yards, TD

Joe Royer: 4 catches, 50 yards, TD

Corey Kiner: 4 catches, 8 yards

Evan Pryor: 1 catch, 40 yards

Xzavier Henderson: 1 catch, 11 yards

Jamoi Mayes: 1 catch, 9 yards

Francis Sherman: 1 catch, 8 yards