Broncos 33, Bills 30

Someone called into WGR a few years ago lamenting Buffalo’s four consecutive Superbowl losses. “I wish they hadn’t made it to any of them because they lost all of them”, he stated, believing that it’s better to not play at all than it is to lose. I remember thinking that as each NFL team enters a new season, the best possible result at the end is a Superbowl victory. From its owner to its coaches, managers, players and fanbase, that objective is unarguable. But what is the second-best possible accomplishment? The answer is clear in my view: it is to lose the Superbowl. Doesn’t matter how many times – consecutively or not. The opportunity to savour the lead-up, the hype, the endless analysis over the two weeks between the Conference Championship Games and the big game is one which should not be passed up. Believing otherwise is like believing that it’s better to have never loved at all than to have loved and lost.

For the Bills often-tortured fanbase, their team seems to have the unique ability to find ever-more excruciating ways to lose with each passing playoff run. The list is long: Wide Right, the Music City Miracle, 13 Seconds etc and Saturday’s overtime loss in Denver will probably take on its own moniker (maybe it already has) as sports talk-radio fodder and to formally add it to the Wall of Shame. Would we have preferred finishing out of the playoffs instead of making it, winning in Jacksonville last week then getting very close to the conference title game but falling just short? Not me. When the Broncos took a 23-10 lead in the third quarter, it felt like the game could end up 30-13 but the Bills came back, took the lead, gave it up, tied it late then came agonizingly close to winning it in overtime but didn’t. Would I have preferred 30-13? Of course not.

Sean McDermott has now completed nine seasons as Bills head coach. His teams have made the playoffs in all but one of them, winning eight playoff games along the way and making the conference title game twice. With the exception of the 27-10 home loss to the Bengals after the 2022 season, their playoff exits have been heart-breaking for sure but anyone who says that they would have preferred not to compete than to lose in gut-wrenching fashion, I suggest doesn’t know how to be a sports fan. After the game ended, I poured myself a scotch, settled in to the Seattle game and thought about how thankful we as Bills fans should be with the team’s long run of success. And I thought about Josh Allen’s turnovers. And the officiating. I considered firing up my sauna and dunking through the ice hole in the photo but I left that to the next day.  

Speaking of officiating, let’s review some of the key controversial calls from the game. Gene Steratore, the former NFL referee and rules/officiating expert on CBS (who is often accused of always siding with his referee brethren), posted his reflections on Twitter after the game. On the Brandin Cooks reception/interception in overtime, Steratore said this: “My perspective on it is that Cooks lost the ball as soon as his body hit the ground. In my opinion, if there was no defender near him and he lost the ball when he hit the ground, the ruling would’ve been incomplete.” I agree with his analysis with only this caveat: Had no defender been with him, it is possible that Cooks could have kept the ball from touching the ground while rolling on his back, then regained control as he completed the roll. I do think that Steratore is right on this and he implied that if Cooks had maintained control of the ball through contact with the ground, the defender would not have been able to wrestle it from his hands. I don’t think I have seen a similar play in all my years of watching football. It was obviously a critical play in the game and McDermott’s main complaint afterward was that there was no stoppage for a booth review. Steratore agreed that there should have been but also suggested that a review would have not have resulted in the call being overturned.

There were three instances of defensive pass interference, two of which Steratore commented on in his post: the first took place in the endzone with Broncos cornerback Riley Moss interfering (in my opinion although Steratore did not comment on this one) with Brandin Cooks in the endzone by holding Cooks arm. No flag was thrown. The second instance where Taron Johnson was called for DPI was very similar to the first one and Steratore thought that it should not have been called. But it was called. The third was the back-breaker call on Tre’Davious White at the five yard-line which essentially ended the game. It was called DPI as Steratore said it should have been. I agree that it was clearly pass interference. In my view, the Moss and Johnson instances should both have been called the same way and both probably would have been called DPI in the first quarter of a week five game. The DPI on Cooks took place in the endzone and would have given the Bills a first-and-goal at the one yard-line.

Josh Allen turned the ball over four times with two fumbles and two picks. I blame him completely for the careless fumble at the end of the first half which led to a Broncos field goal. His blindside sack/fumble wasn’t entirely his fault, the first interception was on a deep ball and the “interception” on the Cooks play was basically a completion. The play which Allen surely wants back is the missed pass to a wide-open Dawson Knox with ten seconds left in regulation. A lower thrown ball would have resulted in an easy touchdown and a 34-30 Bills win.

For Bills Mafia, there is much to look forward to in 2026. In addition to still having Josh Allen under centre, the team will hopefully retool its receiver room and have better luck on the injury front. But there is a new stadium to look forward to as well. I don’t know how quickly the old stadium can be demolished – since the entire lower bowl is below ground level, maybe they can just topple the upper decks down into the lower bowl, smooth it out and make it a much-needed parking lot. Whatever they do, I’m looking forward to hearing all about it this off-season, almost as much as I’m looking forward to paying off my seat licences in the fall. My tickets will cost about 50% more then they did in 2025 but I’ll be right at the 50 yard-line, 25 rows up from the visitor bench.