Buffalo Bills

Broncos quarterback Jarrett Stidham can view it as a tall test, or a golden opportunity.

If Stidham manages to engineer a victory next weekend in the AFC Championship, he’ll become only the second quarterback in the modern era of football to get his first start of the season in the playoffs and win.

Stidham will get the start in place of Broncos quarterback Bo Nix, who suffered a broken ankle near the end of Saturday’s overtime win against the Bills.

Via Kalyn Kahler of ESPN.com, six quarterbacks since 1950 have started a postseason game after not starting a single game in the regular season. Only Frank Reich won, replacing Jim Kelly for the epic 1992 wild-card game against the Oilers, in which the Bills erased a 35-3 third-quarter deficit for a 41-38 overtime win.

Reich got another win the next weekend, beating the Steelers at Three Rivers Stadium in the divisional round, 24-3. (Kelly took over from there.)

Even though Reich hadn’t started a game during the 16-game 1992 season, he had thrown 47 passes in five appearances. Stidham didn’t throw a single pass during the 17-game 2025 regular season. Or during the 17-game 2024 regular season.

Stidham, via Kahler, will be only the second quarterback to get his first start of the season in the conference title game or later. In 1972, Roger Staubach made his first start of the year in place of Craig Morton in the NFC Championship; the Cowboys lost to Washington, 26-3.

Stidham last played in Weeks 17 and 18 of the 2023 season, after the Broncos benched Russell Wilson for financial reasons. Stidham also started two games at the end of the 2022 season, after the Raiders benched Derek Carr for financial reasons. Those are Stidham’s only four career starts.

In seven days, he’ll be facing either the team that drafted him in 2019 (the Patriots), or the Houston successors to the Oilers franchise that fell victim to Frank Reich, 33 years ago.

The game-changing ruling in the Bills-Broncos playoff game got short shrift at the time. It has since become the most dominant topic of discussion in the entire sport.

The folks at NFL Network, which is owned and operated by the league, repeatedly made that point during Sunday morning’s show. The critical decision that Buffalo receiver Brandin Cooks failed to complete the process of catching the ball and Denver cornerback Ja’Quan McMillian intercepted it happened too quickly, with no explanation from referee Carl Cheffers as to the ruling on the field and/or any review of it.

During his weekly appearance on the NFL Network Sunday pregame show, NFL officiating spokesman Walt Anderson went through the reasoning that resulted in the play being not a catch but an interception. The ball, as Anderson explained it, immediately came loose when Cooks hit the ground and ended up in the control of McMillian.

Anderson said that both the replay assistant in the stadium “and New York” reviewed the ruling on the field of an interception.

Steve Mariucci pressed Anderson on one key point: “Who made the call?”

Anderson said that, in the league office, there’s an entire staff of instant-replay officials, with “multiple people at the same time reviewing every play.” Anderson pointed to the “millions of dollars” the NFL has invested in the Hawk-Eye camera system, so that they can look at all angles, talk to each other, and confirm the call on the field.

To his credit, Mariucci kept pushing Anderson. Why, Mariucci asked, didn’t referee Carl Cheffers explain the situation to the millions who were watching the game?

Anderson said that, even without a full-blown replay review, every play is being reviewed by multiple people. “If you can confirm the ruling on the field was correct, they want to move the game along,” Anderson said.

Anderson then added that CBS did a good job of explaining the situation to the audience. Mariucci quipped that he doesn’t want to hear about it from Tony Romo.

“I think Carl should have done that,” Mariucci said.

And then Colleen Wolfe said “more transparency would be good.” She’s absolutely right.

We’ve been saying for years that there should be public access to the replay-review process, whether during a quick look or a full-blown review. We need to see what they’re seeing, and to hear what they’re saying The current process, as Kyle Brandt said earlier in the show, feels “Orwellian.”

That was the risk of exporting replay review from the stadium (where the referee made the replay decisions) to the league office. At the time, we were led to believe Dean Blandino would be making all replay-reviews decisions. And maybe he would have been, if he hadn’t left for Fox because, as Blandino later said, the NFL doesn’t properly “value the position.”

Now, there’s apparently no one person whose name is on these decisions. Combining that with zero transparency creates natural curiosity regarding how and why such an important decision was made — and why it all seemed to be so rushed.

It’s one thing to move along a regular-season game that started in the cluster of 1:00 p.m. ET kickoffs. It’s quite another to slip the engine into overdrive when so much is riding on the outcome.

That’s separate from whether the call was right (there was no effort to reconcile the decision with the Week 14 Steelers-Ravens play that started as an interception and ended via replay review as a catch by Aaron Rodgers). Instead of having Gene Steratore interpret the video evidence for CBS, we should have heard about it from the people who were making the decision, while they were making it.

For starters, it would help tremendously to know who exactly is making these decisions. We still don’t.

From the official rulebook: “All Replay Reviews will be conducted by the Senior Vice President of Officiating or his or her designee.” As explained last month in the aftermath of the crazy backwards-pass, two-point replay ruling in Rams-Seahawks, we don’t even know who the current Senior V.P. of Officiating is.

And we definitely don’t know who his or her specific designee was for one of the most important rulings of the entire 2025 season. At a bare minimum, we should.

In his usual postgame press conference, Bills coach Sean McDermott expressed concern about the process used to uphold a critical overtime interception ruling that likely decided the playoff game between Buffalo and Denver. Then, something unusual happened.

McDermott had more to say. Specifically, McDermott called Jay Skurski of the Buffalo News from the team plane. Here’s the full transcript of a rare coach’s pool report, as forward to PFT by Skurski.

“That play is not even close. 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, you know?”

“That play is not even close. 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, you know?”

Q: “Did you read the pool report?”

“Yeah, [Bills P.R. chief Derek Boyko] sent it to me. I just got it. I wish I would have gotten it before my press conference.”

Q: “Is there any recourse here for you? What can you do?”

“Here’s the deal, right? The fans deserve more. The players certainly deserve more. They deserve an explanation, and it’s a shame that a game is decided on a call like that, and there is no time spent with the head official going underneath the hood or to the replay booth, right? To the monitor. I don’t understand how that works. I don’t understand how that could be the case when it’s such a close play, so basically there is one person ruling on that play or, only New York ruling on that play? I don’t agree with that. If that’s the case, I don’t agree with that -- that that is the best approach to decide a game like that.”

Q: “You’ve always been cautious about commenting on officiating. Why do you feel in this situation that it is so important to share how you feel about it?”

“Because I only speak up when there is a wrong. In this case, it happened to be to our team. We win with class and we lose with class in Buffalo. That’s how we handle our business, but when I’m looking at the replay myself and I’m being objective and I’m saying, ‘you can not convince me that that was not a catch, Buffalo possession, ball at the 20. You can’t convince [me].’ I’m speaking up because I feel strongly that that was a catch and that possession should have been ball belongs to Buffalo. 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, and I feel strongly as I’ve looked at it in review in my own locker that it’s a catch, possession Buffalo, and that the process should have been [long pause] ... handled differently. I don’t understand why the head official who is at the game does not get a chance to look at the same thing people in New York are ruling on.”

McDermott may or may not be accurate regarding his interpretation of the play itself. (Under the standard the NFL applied and defended to overturn the same outcome and make it a catch by Aaron Rodgers in the Week 14 Steelers-Ravens regular-season game, McDermott is absolutely right.) The broader question — especially in an age of legalized, normalized, and heavily monetized gambling — is whether there should have been a more deliberate and transparent process for reviewing such an important play.

Apparently, there was an expedited review. Not a full and formal review. (There’s no mention in the official NFL game book of any review of the play.) Given that the replay assistant or the league office can perform an expedited review, it’s impossible to know who made such an important decision, unless the NFL tells us.

It goes back to the basic construction of the current replay-review process. The goal, more than a decade ago, was to ensure consistency in the application of the rules and the relevant standard by taking the final say from the referees and centralizing it in New York. And if NFL V.P. of instant replay Mark Butterworth — who explained the Rodgers ruling — would have been able to handle a full review of the question of whether Bills receiver Brandin Cooks had caught the ball and was down by contact before it came loose and was intercepted by Broncos cornerback Ja’Quan McMillian, would Butterworth have applied the same standard and reasoning that he applied in the Steelers-Ravens game? Would Butterworth have performed the pool report after the game, instead of referee Carl Cheffers? Would Butterworth have contradicted himself from the Rodgers play?

Cheffers shouldn’t have handled the official post-game pool report, because Cheffers didn’t personally make or review the call. Whoever decided the call was correct should have explained it — and, ideally, should have explained why and how the standard changed from December 7 (the day of the Week 14 Steelers-Ravens game) to January 17.

Bills cornerback Tre’Davious White was flagged for a 30-yard pass interference penalty that effectively ended Saturday’s game, setting up the Broncos for a chip-shot field goal to win in overtime. Afterward, White insisted he hadn’t committed a penalty and that the officials gave the Broncos a gift call because they were playing at home in Denver.

“I thought that I didn’t interfere with the guy, when the ball got there I swiped through, knocked the ball down, then fell on top of him,” White said. “I think the crowd probably played a big-time factor.”

White said he doesn’t think NFL referees understand what good coverage looks like.

“Referees are human and people make mistakes, I just think it should be up to the players to decide the game,” White said. “When the game is fought so hard and comes down to the wire, plays like that, that’s a professional bang-bang play. As a defensive back, that’s what you want, take the guy to the ground and finish the play. Referees just don’t know ball.”

White, who also got an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for yelling at an official after the penalty, was more composed after the game but still just as adamant that the officials had messed up.

“I just think they had bad judgment on that play,” White said.

Through 60 minutes of regulation in Saturday’s Bills-Broncos game, not a single flag was thrown for pass interference. On Denver’s final drive of overtime, there were two.

Both were called against the Bills.

The first was called against Bills cornerback Taron Johnson on Broncos receiver Courtland Sutton for a 17-yard gain, from Denver’s 47 to the Buffalo 36. The second happened two plays later, moving the ball from the Buffalo 38 to the Bills eight after the officials called cornerback Tre’Davious White for interference against Broncos receiver Marvin Mims Jr.

And that was that.

Here’s what referee Carl Cheffers told pool reporter Jeff Legwold after the game: “The first one was an arm grab. The defender held the receiver’s right arm down, which prevented him from going up for the pass with two hands. He was attempting a one-arm grab of the ball. And so, that restriction of his right arm was why pass interference was called. . . The second was early contact and an arm grab that materially restricted the receiver.”

That’s fine. But late in the fourth quarter, Broncos cornerback Riley Moss did the same thing — or worse — to Bills receiver Brandin Cooks. There was no call.

The issue is consistency. For a game to be called a certain way for four quarters and then for it to change in overtime isn’t what the NFL should want. If the plays in overtime were interference, the play late in regulation should have been interference.

And if that had happened, the Bills may have won the game in regulation.

As it stands, on the three most important interference calls and non-calls of the game, the Broncos had all three of them go their way. The Bills had none. And the Broncos are moving out.

In Saturday’s AFC division-round game in Denver, the overtime period took a sudden turn when a throw by Bills quarterback Josh Allen to receiver Brandin Cooks turned into an interception by Broncos cornerback Ja’Quan McMillian.

After the game, referee Carl Cheffers explained the play to pool reporter Jeff Legwold.

“The receiver has to complete the process of a catch,” Cheffers said. “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 was awarded the ball.”

And while Cheffers said the ruling was confirmed by the replay process, the NFL’s official game book does not mention that a full review was initiated. Presumably, then, the ruling was confirmed via expedited review.

In isolation, the ruling seems to be accurate. There was no “clear and obvious” evidence to overturn the on-field decision that Cooks failed to maintain possession after hitting the ground. However, the outcome can’t be reconciled with the replay ruling from the Week 14 Steelers-Ravens game, in which the replay process overturned the ruling of an interception when Pittsburgh quarterback Aaron Rodgers apparently failed to “survive the ground.”

“The offensive player had control of the ball and as he was going to the ground, there was a hand in there, but he never lost control of the ball and then his knees hit the ground in control,” NFL V.P. of instant replay Mark Butterworth said at the time. “So therefore, by rule, he is down by contact with control of the ball.”

If that’s the reasoning that applied to the Rodgers catch, the same reasoning should have applied to Cooks. The key is consistency. Either the NFL got it wrong with Rodgers, or the NFL got it wrong with Cooks. In both cases, however, the league defended two very different outcomes.

And, obviously, the outcome on Saturday contributed directly to the Broncos and not the Bills advancing to the AFC Championship.

One of the biggest plays in Saturday’s Broncos win over the Bills was Broncos safety Ja’Quan McMillian’s interception of a Josh Allen pass to Brandin Cooks in overtime.

McMillian wrestled the ball out of Cooks’ hands as or after Cooks went to the ground with apparent possession of the ball. Officials ruled it an interception on the field and the Broncos went on to kick a field goal for a 33-30 win.

Bills head coach Sean McDermott was unable to challenge the ruling because it was subject to automatic review as a turnover and because challenges are not allowed in over time, but he called a timeout after the play to speak to officials. After the game, McDermott said he called the timeout because he wanted “the process to slow down” and said “In my eyes it was” a catch by Cooks. McDermott’s gambit didn’t lead to any further review and he made his disagreement with the ruling clear after the game.

“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. . . . I’m saying it because I’m standing up for Buffalo, damn it. I’m standing up for us. That’s not how it should go down.”

The Bills are no strangers to painful losses, but Saturday’s will likely earn a high ranking on the all-time list.

Bills quarterback Josh Allen was in tears as he spoke after today’s loss to the Broncos, saying he takes personal responsibility for the disappointing ending to the Bills’ season.

“It’s extremely difficult. I feel like I let my teammates down tonight,” Allen said. “Missed opportunities throughout the game. It’s been a long season. I hate how it ended and that’s going to stick with me for a long time. . . . You can’t win with five turnovers. I fumbled twice, threw two picks. When you shoot yourself in the foot like that you don’t deserve to win football games.”

The Bills’ 33-30 overtime loss featured some highly questionable calls by the officials, but when Allen was asked about those calls he declined to blame the officials, instead saying that any loss is going to be disappointing.

“Yeah, I mean, losing that way regardless, losing in the playoffs is not fun,” Allen said. “If one or two plays go our way, it’s a different story.”

Ultimately, Allen pout the loss on himself.

“I love my teammates,” Allen said. “I’m extremely sorry and disappointed in how this ended.”

In an NFL playoff classic, the Denver Broncos have advanced to the AFC Championship Game with a 33-30 overtime win over the Buffalo Bills.

The AFC Championship Game will be in Denver next week, with the winner of tomorrow’s Texans-Patriots game facing the Broncos for the right to play in Super Bowl LX.

The NFL playoff overtime rules guarantee each team a possession, and the Bills won the overtime coin toss and chose to kick, thinking it’s better to know what they need on their first possession.

The Broncos picked up one first down before they punted on their first offensive possession, leaving the Bills to take over at their own 7-yard line for their first possession. where Josh Allen took over, driving the Bills down the field.

Eventually, Allen threw a deep ball to Brandin Cooks deep in Broncos territory, Cooks grabbed it, went to the ground with Broncos defensive back Ja’Quan McMillian, and McMillian came up with the ball. The ruling on the field was that McMillian intercepted the pass. The Bills called a timeout, hoping the referee would review the replay and rule it a catch from Cooks, but they never stopped the game for a replay review.

From there, the Broncos’ offense took over, and when Bo Nix threw a deep ball to Courtland Sutton, Bills defensive back Taron Johnson was flagged for pass interference, moving Denver into long field goal range. Then Nix threw another deep ball, and another Bills defensive back, Tre’Davious White, was called for a 30-yard pass interference penalty. White then got an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for yelling at the official. That set up the Broncos in easy field goal range.

Wil Lutz kicked the 24-yard game winner, and the Broncos are one win away from the Super Bowl.

We have overtime in the NFL divisional playoffs.

The Bills and Broncos are tied 30-30 at the end of the fourth quarter, and now they will go to overtime.

NFL playoff overtime rules guarantee both teams a possession, and they’ll play 15-minute quarters until there’s a winner, as if it were a whole new game.

Overtime comes after a thrilling, back-and-forth fourth quarter in which Broncos quarterback Bo Nix hit Marvin Mims for a 26-yard touchdewn with 55 seconds left to take a 30-27 lead, only to have Bills kicker Matt Prater hit a 50-yard field goal to tie the game.

Now overtime will start with a coin toss, and the team winning the toss can choose to kick, receive, defer or select which goal to defend. Both teams get a possession, even if the team that receives the overtime kickoff scores a touchdown. If there’s a touchdown on the first possession, that team will then kick off and the other team will have a chance to score a touchdown of its own. The only situation in which both teams would not get a possession would be if the team on defense first scores a safety. In that case, the safety would win the game.

The winner goes to the AFC Championship Game.