BOULDER — Deion Sanders believed with every fiber of his being that if Shedeur Sanders got the ball back in the last minute of Saturday’s game against No. 8 USC, his quarterback would’ve led Colorado down the field for a game-tying touchdown.

Why wouldn’t he?

Just two weeks ago on the very same field, Shedeur led the Buffaloes on a 98-yard drive in the final two minutes against Colorado State that required not just a touchdown, but also a two-point conversion, to force overtime in a game that CU went on to win 43-35.

PHOTOS: Buffs vs. USC Trojans

This time though, the ball never got back in Shedeur’s hands.

The Buffs, who trailed by 27 points midway through the third quarter, cut the Trojans’ lead to seven with a touchdown pass from Shedeur to Jimmy Horn Jr. with 1:43 left.

With no timeouts, CU needed a successful onside kick to have a chance to force overtime. Jace Feely’s kick into the ground found only the arms of a USC player, sealing a 48-41 loss for the Buffs that drops them to 3-2, 0-2 Pac-12,  on the season. But one thing was clear to the head coach — this was not the same team that got blown out.

“They were resilient when they had multiple opportunities to give up,” Coach Prime said.

The Buffs actually outscored the Trojans and their Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Caleb Williams by 13 points in the second half.

Shedeur looked like a Heisman-caliber quarterback in his own right, returning to the form everyone saw from him in the first few weeks. He finished 30-for-45 passing with 371 yards, four touchdowns and an interception. He also made plenty of plays for his legs and had an impressive, sack-adjusted total of 76 yards on the ground, including his 25-yard touchdown run that gave the Buffs a sliver of momentum heading into the second half.

There were more than just highlight plays from Shedeur — there were NFL-quality plays.

On the touchdown pass to Omarion Miller on a fourth-and-5 early in the fourth quarter, Shedeur not only made the play that made everyone in the stadium believe that an incredible comeback might just be underway, but Shedeur fit the ball into a seemingly nonexistent window for a pass that very few college quarterbacks are making.

“He’s unflappable,” Coach Prime said.

Even despite all of the plays Shedeur did make, he’s probably going to want to redo the Buffs’ final possession of the game. It ended in a touchdown that made it a one-score game, but the drive took a little over four minutes when it needed to have taken at most three minutes.

“I put that a lot of that on me,” Shedeur said. “You know Coach (Lewis), he’s a fast tempo guy but I slowed it down. It’s on me. I’ve gotta grow from it.”

There are still plenty of encouraging things for the Buffs to take away from this game. They went toe-to-toe with one of the best teams in the country and a quick glance at the stat sheet might even suggest CU was the better team over the course of the full 60 minutes. The Buffs outgained the Trojans 564-498, had more first downs and were the much better team on third down.

But the world “moral victory” won’t be uttered anywhere inside the Buffs’ locker room.

“Just because it’s a big team, that don’t mean we tip our cap and be like, ‘Ok, at least we didn’t get blown out now,’” Shedeur said. “No, a loss is a loss.”

The Buffs are now 0-17 against Trojans in their history.