The Buffalo Bills suffered another painful playoff loss on Saturday, and to add to the pain, this loss came with some controversy. During Denver’s 33-30 overtime win, the Broncos’ game-winning drive was set up by an interception that shouldn’t have counted, according to Bills coach Sean McDermott.
With just under eight minutes left to play in overtime, the Bills were facing a third-and-11 from their own 36-yard line, so Josh Allen decided to throw a deep pass to Brandin Cooks. On the play, Cooks appeared to catch the ball, but after rolling on the ground, it was Ja’Quan McMillian who came up with it.
If Cooks was ruled to have control of the ball when his knee hit the ground, then the play would be over, but the officials ruled that Cooks didn’t maintain control of the pass as he hit the ground so the ball was still live when McMillian snatched it.
After the game, McDermott was asked about the play and he was upset for two reasons. For one, he didn’t feel like the officiating crew took enough time to review the play.
“It’s hard for me to — and I’ve had a chance to look at it — it’s hard for me to understand why it was ruled the way it was ruled,” McDermott said. “If it is ruled that way, then why wasn’t it slowed down just to make sure that we have this right. That would have made a lot of sense to me, to make sure that we have this thing right, because that’s a pivotal play in the game. We have the ball at the 20 and we may be kicking a game-winning field goal right there, so I’ll just leave it at that.”
An irate McDermott had even more to say after giving his initial answer.
“I’m saying it because I’m standing up for Buffalo, damn it,” the Bills coach said. “I’m standing up for us. What went on, that is not how it should go down, in my estimation. These guys spent three hours out there playing football, pouring their guts out. To not even say, ‘Hey, let’s slow this thing down.’ That’s where I’m bothered.”
McDermott was then asked if he thought the play should have been ruled a catch and he didn’t hide his opinion.
“In my eyes, it was, but even if it wasn’t, the players are owed, to me, ‘Hey let’s stop it, let’s slow it down, let’s put the head referee and give him a chance to look at the monitor,'” McDermott said.
After finishing his press conference, the Bills coach got interviewed again in a pool report and after thinking about the play some more, he was even more adamant that the officials made the wrong call on the field.
“That play is not even close,” McDermott said, via WGR-550 in Buffalo. “That’s a catch all the way. I sat in my locker and I looked at it probably 20 times, and nobody can convince me that that ball is not caught and in possession of Buffalo. I just have no idea how the NFL handed it, in particular, the way that they did. I think the players and the fans deserve an explanation.”
Following the game, referee Carl Cheffers gave that explanation when he was asked why the play was ruled an interception.
“The receiver has to complete the process of the catch,” Cheffers said in the pool report. “He was going to the ground as part of the process of the catch and he lost possession of the ball when he hit the ground. The defender gained possession of it at that point. The defender is the one that completed the process of the catch, so the defender is awarded the ball.”
McDermott almost never calls out officials for a possible blown call, but he felt it was necessary in this case.
“I’m speaking up because I feel strongly that that was a catch and that possession should have been ball belongs to Buffalo,” McDermott said. “I can’t agree with their assessment of a change of possession or whatever the statement was. I can’t agree with that. We’re not just going to sit here and take it, is what I’m saying. We’re not just going to sit here and take it. I’m pissed off about it.”
The controversial interception was one of five turnovers by the Bills in the game. Allen was responsible for four of them with two interceptions and two lost fumbles.
The pick by McMillian set up even more controversy: The Broncos ended up driving 75 yards for their game-winning field goal, but 47 yards of that total came on pass interference penalties.
The Bills have had to do deal with some painful losses in franchise history and this is another one that will certainly be sticking with them for awhile.