Top Moments of the 2010s: Colt 45

The 2013 season was full of great memories. The fantastic offensive line play, the prolific offense, the stout defense, a nearly perfect season.

But depending on who you ask, the single most memorable play during the season was Bud Sasser’s only passing touchdown of his career, the trick play to seize control in the most important road win of Mizzou’s young SEC membership, a play called Colt 45.

From the post-game coverage at RockMNation:

We’ve seen it happen too many times -- the double-pass is well-covered, and the skill position player tasked with throwing the ball downfield is in no way equipped with the quarterback instincts necessary to admit defeat and either tuck and run or throw the ball away. If a trick play like that hasn’t already worked by the time the ball reaches whoever is playing the Bud Sasser role, it’s probably doomed to not only fail, but fail in disastrous fashion.

So I think my reflexes were justifiable. But my reflexes were not tuned to account for either the quality of Bud Sasser’s arm or the zone in which L’Damian Washington found himself for most of the afternoon. Sasser threw an absolutely gorgeous ball (for a receiver), and Washington made a ridiculous catch while getting positively mauled by Shaq Wiggins in the end zone.

(We’re all in agreement that the back judge was simply playing “advantage” on that play, like in soccer, right? Like, if the pass had fallen incomplete, he’d have definitely thrown a flag, right? Right? Tell me I’m right because, wow, did Washington get mugged. And he caught it anyway.)

The play itself put Missouri up 34-26, they’d go on to win 41-26. The game was still very much up for grabs and the gutsy play call netted a touchdown to give Missouri some needed breathing room. The defense held, and Henry Josey tacked on a late touchdown to make up the final difference but the key was Colt 45. Mizzou’s win at Georgia set the tone for the rest of the season which put them into the SEC East Championship game.

Max Scherzer also found the result exciting. If you want some entertainment, we went through 3 game threads that day and here’s the moment Sasser’s pass to L’Damian Washington connected. Fun fact, I did not watch the game because I was in Spain. Our flight left at 4:30pm on Friday and we were due to arrive in Bilbao around 2:30pm the next afternoon. But we were delayed in Paris and didn’t land until that evening. So I kept up with the game via the ESPN app on my phone in the Charles de Gaulle airport. So while you’re viewing of the game was vastly superior to that of my own, the next 10 days were pretty rad. Sorry for the sub-plot.

• Here’s the BTBS of the game: Missouri 41, Georgia 26: Beyond the box score
• You can also read Jack Peglow’s diary of his trip to Athens.