Buffalo Rumblings
I was ready to write a succinct postscript on the Buffalo Bills’ season had they lost to the Denver Broncos, chalking it up to reaching their limit after enduring so many injuries. But, there’s always more when it comes to discussing the Bills. Here are a few of my meandering thoughts while the blood is still tacky and warm.
Almost like clockwork, the Bills are heading home playoff losers, having dropped another elimination game that felt like it came too soon in the process. That process is something Bills Mafia has been told to trust, yet every year since head coach Sean McDermott arrived in Western New York the team’s season ends in heartbreak. At some point you’d expect the law of averages to swing this regime’s way, yet instead they find new ways to let everyone down.
There are a lot of reasons to point to for Buffalo’s latest playoff disaster, but the reason they’ll fly home in silence is due to the unacceptable amount of turnovers. Perhaps as a fan, you’re upset with Jim Nantz’s obsession in discussing quarterback Josh Allen’s lack of postseason turnovers. Jinxes are real. Sure, the Bills battled back to take a one-point lead after many of those fumbles, but that required a mountain of work that ate both precious clock and energy they could have used at the end of regulation.
To carry an 0-7 overtime record is also unacceptable. The best find a way to win those games, and to be honest, Buffalo didn’t give Denver the best they had. Still, it’s impossible to ignore the role that head referee Carl Cheffers and his motley crew played late in action.
The Broncos entered the afternoon with the most-penalized secondary in the NFL. How many times was Denver flagged for defensive pass interference? Zero. In contrast, the Bills were flagged over and over and over for defensive penalties in contested catch moments. Inexplicably, the penalty flags really didn’t show up until overtime, and then they only seemed magnetized toward Buffalo’s players.
Defensive end Joey Bosa absolutely deserved the personal foul call for a play where it was clear that frustration had taken over. So, even if the refs decided to continue allowing nickel cornerback Taron Johnson to play a more physical brand of defense (he bumped the WR’s left forearm), penalty yards were coming. But the pass interference penalty on cornerback Tre’Davious White? That’s just a terrible flag to throw at a guy who played really fine defense in a huge moment of the game. Again, that was damn fine football out of White with the season on the line, not a penalty.
But before all of that, there are two plays that stand out to me where officiating simply mailed it in, which should be a major concern for the billionaires that run the NFL machine. A touchdown late in action for Denver was ruled successful, yet replay clearly showed the football hit the ground as he fell, and then immediately shake...
