He had just been sacked for the seventh time and was about to go down again when he got off a shovel pass in the nick of time to tailback Demetrius Sumler, bringing up third-and-16 from his 33-yard line with the Buffs trailing by six and time running out.
It was the start of a frenetic and fantastic finish for the Buffaloes as Hansen overcame his second-straight eight-sack game to lead Colorado to a 35-34 win over Texas A&M on Saturday.
The Aggies, who would have become bowl-eligible with a win, fell to 5-4 overall and 2-3 in the Big 12 Conference with the loss to Colorado (3-6, 2-3).
On third-and-long, Hansen hit Markques Simas for 45 yards, then threw a strike to tight end Patrick Devenny, whose one-handed grab in the end zone from 22 yards out tied it. Aric Goodman's conversion sailed through to put the Buffaloes ahead by a point with 2:04 left.
After Anthony Perkins picked off Jerrod Johnson's pass at midfield, the Aggies forced a punt. But backup Terrence Frederick, who replaced regular returner Dustin Harris (ankle), bungled it and Buffs linebacker Marcus Burton recovered with 23 seconds left.
"At first, I'm thinking I'm going to lay him out and then he muffed it. Then there were three guys who (touched) the ball, too, so I'm just like, 'I want to grab it,'" Burton said. "I knew the game was ours, take a knee, get the (win), come into the locker room and sing the fight song."
Simas had a breakout performance, catching seven passes for 135 yards and Rodney Stewart ran 20 times for 118 yards and two touchdowns for Colorado, which held twice near the goal line.
