Sorry, Bills. It’s not the NFL without officiating controversy

AI-assisted summary
• A controversial interception in overtime led to the Denver Broncos’ 33-30 playoff victory over the Buffalo Bills.
• The play, where Ja’Quan McMillian took the ball from Brandin Cooks, was upheld after an automatic review.
• Bills coach Sean McDermott questioned the ruling, believing Cooks should have been ruled down by contact.

DENVER – Was the pick legit?

Even worse for the heartbroken Buffalo Bills as Ja’Quan McMillian ripped the football away from Brandin Cooks for the interception that gave the Denver Broncos new life in overtime of the Jan. 17 AFC divisional playoff game was the sight of back judge Scott Helverson instantly signaling a turnover.

Rather than a 39-yard completion that could have set up a potential game-winning field goal, the Bills saw victory snatched from their grasp in a hail of controversy.

The ruling from New York – where the NFL reviews all turnovers from its officiating command center at league headquarters – didn’t make it better for the Bills Mafia.

The play stood.

And it will linger as another symbol of frustration for a franchise that has come up short again in its quest to get back to the Super Bowl.

“It’s hard for me to understand why it was ruled the way it was ruled,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said during an emotional postgame news conference after the Broncos advanced to the AFC championship game with a 33-30 victory.

Sorry, Buffalo. It wouldn’t be the NFL without some sort of officiating controversy. After the dramatic regular season was spiced by several cases that inflamed debate over calls made or missed by the officials, it’s only natural for the playoffs to come wrapped with such drama.

Catch or interception? Bills-Broncos play will be debated for years

The Bills – plus armchair quarterbacks, ex-players, informed analysts, internet influencers and probably others – maintained that Cooks should have been ruled down by contact after hauling in the rainbow throw from Josh Allen that traveled 55 yards in the air. Cooks and McMillian tumbled to the turf and rolled over with the nickel back emerging with the football.

Referee Carl Cheffers explained that Cooks never had possession of the football as he crashed to the turf.

“The defender is the one that completed the process of the catch, so the defender was awarded the ball,” Cheffers said in the Pro Football Writers Association (PFWA) pool report.

Maybe so. Yet that hardly addresses the inconsistency that is often at the heart of debate concerning the calls or non-calls by NFL officials.

How many times have we seen a receiver barely touch the ground with a knee hitting the turf – as Cooks did – and getting credit for the catch?

Sure, there’s always a different perspective with freeze-frame video versus real-time eyesight. That’s part of what the officiating experts – in New York and on the field – undoubtedly have to process.

In any event, for Bills fans, the would-be catch by Cooks is their version of the “Dez Bryant caught it” controversy that dogged the Dallas Cowboys after the receiver’s apparent catch was ruled incomplete in an NFC divisional playoff loss at Green Bay in January 2015.

Of course, McMillian wonders what the fuss is about.

“I don’t really think he had complete control going down,” he said. “We were both fighting for the ball. I just made a play and basically took it out of his hands and came up with it.”

Adding to Buffalo’s consternation were the two pass interference calls against Taron Johnson and Tre’Davious White, for 17 and 30 yards, respectively, that set up Wil Lutz’s chip-shot winning field goal.

Blame the refs? Cheffers’ crew couldn’t be blamed for the DPI calls – Johnson pulled on Courtland Sutton’s arm as Bo Nix’s pass arrived. White hit intended target Marvin Mims, Jr. early – even in a game where it appeared the officials were not necessarily calling it tight.

Still, you may never convince the Bills – stung in last year’s playoff by a questionable spot on an Allen run in crunch time of the AFC title game loss a Kansas City – that McMillian’s interception should have stood.

Why didn’t Bills challenge controversial interception call?

McDermott was unable to challenge the ruling for two reasons. All turnovers and scoring plays are automatically reviewed in New York at any point in the game. Besides, it was overtime, when coaches are unable to challenge a play as all replay reviews are initiated in New York.

Still, credit McDermott for his next-best, last-gasp option: He called a timeout and requested a quick chat with Cheffers, who told him the turnover was confirmed in New York.

“It was a rather rapid unfolding of the review, if there was a review, and so I called a timeout to try to slow it down,” McDermott said. “It would seem logical to me and make a lot of sense that the head official would walk over and want to go and take a look at it. Just to make sure that everybody from here who is in the stadium, to there (in New York) are on the same page. That’s too big of a play, in my estimation, too big of a play in a play that decided the game, potentially … to not even slow it down. That’s why I had to call the timeout.”

Nice try, but no dice.

The controversy, nonetheless, will live on. Scrutiny on officials will likely intensify during the offseason as the NFL engages in negotiations with the union for officials as the expiration of their labor pact looms.

Sean Payton gets it. The Broncos coach had his own moment of officiating controversy in a high-stakes game during his tenure with the New Orleans Saints. A non-call of pass interference near the goal line stung New Orleans during an overtime loss to the Los Angeles Rams during the 2018 NFC Championship Game at the Superdome.

Had the Broncos not survived on Sunday, Payton might have some sort of flashback – and surely been livid about an apparent missed call in overtime. Early on Buffalo’s final possession, it appeared that a holding call was missed as Allen threw from his end zone. A flag would have resulted in a safety.

“A phenomenal play by ‘J-Mac,’” Payton said of McMillian’s interception. “But it should’ve ended really with a safety, which would’ve been the first in the history of football.”

A playoff game ending on a penalty would have surely ignited some controversy.

Hey, there’s always next weekend.

Contact Jarrett Bell at jbell@usatoday.com or follow on X: @JarrettBell