An extra-down game that didn’t end when it should’ve never really goes away for Mizzou
The 2020 football season will mark the 30-year anniversary of Colorado’s national championship. The Buffaloes had finished 1-10 just six seasons earlier, played for the 1989 title and pushed through in 1990, finishing first in The Associated Press Top 25 poll.
The leading rusher for that team was Eric Bieniemy, with 1,628 yards. He finished third in the Heisman Trophy voting and remains the Buffaloes’ career rushing leader.
Everything about that season makes Bieniemy smile in recollection. He even tries not to rub it in at his workplace.
As the Chiefs’ offensive coordinator, Bieniemy works under head coach Andy Reid and alongside special teams coordinator Dave Toub, who were young Missouri’s staff members that season. The Tigers didn’t have a good record that year, finishing 4-7.
But they beat Colorado in Columbia ... or would have, if the game had ended when it should have. Instead, the Buffs benefitted from an officiating error and scored the game-winning touchdown in a 33-31 outcome on the final play — a sneak by quarterback Charles Johnson from the 1.
Yes, the Fifth-Down Game, the play that still burns in Missouri, the state in which Bieniemy has been employed since 2013.
Here in KC, the fifth down is never far away.
“I’m walking through our neighborhood — I’ve discovered more of our neighborhood than anytime since I’ve been here — and this guy is cutting his grass,” Bieniemy said. “He stops his lawn mower and comes running out, and I’m thinking, ‘Am I going to have to fight this man?’
“Come to find out, he gives the exact date, the exact time of the Fifth-Down Game. I’m like, ‘Are you ever going let us live this down?’ It was hilarious. But I will say this. It’s good to be remembered for a lot of good things. But also I hate the fact, in this state, working with the Kansas City Chiefs, I am remembered more for the fifth down than the national championship.”
The game’s shelf life won’t expire as long as Bieniemy, Reid and Toub are together. The topic came up during a media day at the recent Super Bowl won by the Chiefs.
“They cheated,” Reid responded to a question at the podium.