The Buffalo Bills' season ended in heartbreaking fashion in overtime as Broncos kicker Wil Lutz drilled a game-winning 23-yard field goal at home to win 33-30.
Here's what we learned from Bills at Broncos:
1 — Bills' fifth turnover proves fatal
After so many twists and turns over 60+ minutes of football, it was another costly turnover — Buffalo's fifth of the evening — that soon after led to another tragic end to a Bills football season.
"Can't win with five turnovers," said an emotional Josh Allen at the podium. "You shoot yourself in the foot like that. You don't deserve to win football games."
In overtime, wide receiver Brandin Cooks appeared to make a leaping catch just outside the Broncos' 20-yard line which would've set Buffalo up for a potential game-winning field goal. Only it wasn't a catch, it was an interception after cornerback Ja'Quan McMillian wrestled the ball away from Cooks as the pair went to the ground.
Perhaps a controversial decision, but it was deemed Cooks did not maintain full control of the ball all the way through the catch and Denver took over.
"When you come up short like this, it's going to sting for a long time," Cooks said. The receiver said he believes he caught the ball, but added, "I'm always thinking I caught the ball."
A Bills defense, which had limited the Broncos to 10 points in the second half, could not muster up another stop. Broncos QB Bo Nix completed a 24-yard pass to RB RJ Harvey to near midfield, then two downfield pass interference calls on Buffalo set Denver up inside the 10-yard line for the game-winning FG.
"It's extremely difficult. "I feel like I let my teammates down tonight," Allen said.
The way the game ended turns the spotlight to shine on all the other miscues the Bills had throughout the day. Allen had his first career playoff game with four turnovers. Until his fumble right before halftime that led to a Broncos field goal, Allen had gone 427 consecutive snaps in the postseason without a fumble or an interception.
"Just trying to be aggressive. Can't do that," Allen said of the fumble.
After Buffalo's opening drive touchdown to take a 7-3 lead, the Bills fumbled on three of their next four possessions — one by RB James Cook, the other two by Allen.
Cook, whose 117 rushing yards are a Bills road postseason record, lost a fumble in the second quarter that led to a Broncos touchdown. Instead of a potential 14-3 advantage, Buffalo trailed 10-7.
The Broncos scored 13 total points off Bills turnovers.
"If one or two plays go our way, it's a different story," Allen said.
2 — Defensive stops in second half launch comeback
Because of an uneven first half performance, the Bills once again had to rally from down 10 points. In the regular season, they tied with the Saints with the most comeback wins when trailing by double digits (3).
Down 23-10, Buffalo started to find footing on both sides of the ball. A touchdown drive brought it to within 23-17 and back-to-back punts forced by Buffalo's defense gave Allen and the offense time to operate without hurrying.
Nix was just 2 for 7 passing for 25 yards in the third quarter as the Bills outgained Denver 82-34 in the quarter.
"Second half, Bobby Babich and his staff made some adjustments," said Sean McDermott "Players stepped up. Seemed to understand the adjustments."
The Bills went on to score 17 unanswered points between the 6:49 mark of the third quarter and 4:11 mark of the fourth quarter to take a 27-23 lead.
3 — Sean McDermott stands up for Buffalo
At the podium postgame, head coach Sean McDermott fully acknowledged that his team and staff left plays out on the field and had opportunities to win the game but didn't executive.
Still, he took issue with how Cooks' non-catch that turned into an interception was handled in terms of the communication and decision making by the officiating crew. Here are his full comments, lightly edited for clarity.
"Obviously I don't have the power to challenge, right? We're in overtime, so the flag is not an option to throw it down. So I called a timeout to try and get the process to slow down, because it seemed like the process was not slowing down. It was a rather rapid unfolding of the review," he said.
McDermott believes the officiating crew should have stopped the game to take a full review.
"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 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 as well, to not even slow it down. And that's why I had to call the time out," he said.
McDermott said he hoped the timeout would give the officiating crew time to decide to go to a full review, but that did not happen. Whether the call on the field was correct or not, the Bills coach believes the head official should've gone into the replay booth to double check.
"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, maybe kicking a game-winning field goal right there. So I'll just leave it at that.
"But I'm saying it because I'm standing up for Buffalo, damn it. I'm standing up for us. Because what went on is not how it should go down. In my estimation, these guys spend three hours out there playing football, pouring their guts out to not even say, hey, let's just slow this thing down. That's why I'm bothered."
McDermott concluded that he believes Cooks was down by contact.
"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, just to make sure, just to make sure.
