AP Photo\/Jack Dempsey<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/aside>\nA separate interview for the pool report was conducted with referee Carl Cheffers, who explained what seemed to be involved.<\/p>\n
“The receiver has to complete the catch process,” Cheffers said. “He was going down as part of the catch and lost control of the ball when he hit the ground. The linebacker got it at that point. The linebacker completed the catch, so the linebacker was given the ball.”<\/p>\n
Cheffers said it was confirmed in the replay that the ball did not hit the ground.<\/p>\n
Although Cooks said he felt he caught the pass, he said he should have done more to leave things in the hands of the officials. Multiple Bills players took to social media after the game to show that they felt the catch was over by Cooks.<\/p>\n
“The biggest play in the game that decided the game, maybe, again, is not to put it back,” McDermott said, speaking to the officials. “That’s why I had to call timeout. It’s not what I wanted to do, but I had to do it to make sure I understood what was going on and that they were looking into it.”<\/p>\n
McDermott added: “I’m saying it because I’m representing Nathi, hell. I’m representing us. What happened, it shouldn’t go down the way I’m estimating. These guys spent three hours playing football, spilling their guts so they wouldn’t say, ‘Hey, let’s take it easy.’ That’s why I’m worried.”<\/p>\n
In the Broncos’ subsequent game-winning drive, the Bills were called for two defensive pass interference penalties, becoming only the second team in the past 25 years, regular season or playoffs, to have multiple such penalties on a single drive in overtime. (It also happened to the New York Jets against the Green Bay Packers in 2018.)<\/p>\n
Cornerback Tre’Davious White, who was called for a second pass interference while covering Marvin Mims Jr., disagreed with the penalty, which stopped the Broncos at the Bills’ 8-yard line.<\/p>\n
“As a defensive back, here’s what you want: Take the guy down and finish the game. Referees don’t know football, man,” White said.<\/p>\n
White said he felt Mims wasn’t looking back at the ball and said he was “playing with his hands.”<\/p>\n
“I didn’t touch him before the ball got there,” White said. “I feel like I finished the pack like I was trained to do.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Alaina GetzenbergJan 18, 2026, 01:17 AM ET Shut up Alaina Getzenberg covers the Buffalo Bills for ESPN. He joined ESPN in 2021. Alaina was previously a reporter for the Charlotte Observer and has worked for CBS Sports and the Dallas Morning News. He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley. DENVER — Buffalo Bills coach …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3633,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3632"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3632\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3634,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3632\/revisions\/3634"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}