One play is all it took to torch the Buffalo Bills’ season and start a war between head coach Sean McDermott and the NFL’s officiating crew. The Bills thought they had it, third-and-11 in overtime, Josh Allen to Brandin Cooks, ball at Denver Broncos’ 20. Right in the field goal range, except the refs called it a Broncos interception. After the post-game presser, he lost his cool.

“That play is not even close. That’s a catch all the way,” McDermott told Jay Skurski after his presser, as per an X post. “I sat in my locker room 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 handled it, in particular, the way that they did.”

Among NFL coaches, McDermott isn’t known to lose cool publicly. He has built a reputation of unwavering coach speak, despite wins or losses. But with that controversial call ending yet another Super Bowl dream, the coach couldn’t handle it anymore. What stung more was the process. McDermott questioned why the officials never examined the play on a monitor despite its game-deciding magnitude. Making his stance clear, he further unloaded his feelings in that locker room.

“The fans deserve more. The players certainly deserve more,” McDermott continued when asked what the recourse is after that call. “It’s a shame that a game is decided on a call like that. There is no time spent with the head official going underneath the hood or to the replay booth, to the monitor. I don’t understand how that could be the case when it’s such a close play. I don’t agree with that – that that is the best approach to decide a game like that.”

The NFL’s explanation, on the other hand, was clear. Head referee Carl Cheffers delivered a clinical analysis of the call. Cooks couldn’t complete the catch, but Broncos cornerback Ja’Quan McMillian did. Therefore, it was Denver’s ball.

“The receiver has to complete the process of a catch,” Cheffers noted. “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.”

For Sean McDermott, that wasn’t good enough. Many stars have already incurred brutal fines in the regular season for questioning the officials. But McDermott’s willingness to incur potential fines signals how deeply this loss and this call cut into Buffalo’s championship hopes. You can’t challenge the ruling on the field in overtime, so McDermott called a timeout. But the final verdict came from New York, while the officials didn’t stop the game to evaluate it themselves. Later, the HC was asked about usually being cautious about commenting on officiating.

“I only speak up when there is a wrong,” McDermott said. “I’m speaking up because I feel strongly that that was catch and that possession or whatever the statement was, I can’t agree with that. 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. 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.”

We will have to wait and see how the league responds to the verdict that left Buffalo seething. For now, the Bills’ season is over, once again. Sean McDermott’s postgame fury, filled with pointed questions, was not an outright declaration of war on the NFL, but it certainly carried the implication.

On the other side of that emotional divide stood Josh Allen. While his head coach simmered, the quarterback chose composure, absorbing another playoff heartbreak in silence and searching for answers within rather than confrontation.

Josh Allen’s brutal self-assessment

You didn’t need to wait for Allen to start speaking to know how he felt as he walked up to the podium. Shoulders hunched, head bowed, eyes red with tears and remorse etched on every inch of his face. The Bills quarterback then delivered perhaps the most devastating admission of his playoff career.

“Can’t win with five turnovers,” Allen said. “I fumbled twice, threw two picks. You shoot yourself in the foot like that, you don’t deserve to win football games.”

Allen was not deflecting or protecting the locker room. The QB held himself accountable for the game that transpired. Allen’s fumble just before halftime (stripped by Nik Bonitto with 16 seconds left) allowed Denver to kick a field goal from Buffalo’s 30 and take a 10-point lead into the locker room.

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Allen opened the third quarter with another fumble, awarding Denver another field goal. He got back some momentum with a touchdown on the next possession, but an interception shifted the momentum back in Denver’s favor. There was still some hope, though. Thanks to a 50-yard field goal by Matt Prater, the teams went 30-30 into overtime. But then came that controversial interception call.

“Losing that way, regardless, losing in the playoffs is not fun,” Allen admitted when asked about that call.

When reporters further asked if the officials explained the call to them, Allen’s response was a single, hollow word: “No.”

Buffalo now faces an offseason haunted by what-ifs. While McDermott’s unprecedented challenge may force league-wide conversations on replay protocol, no rule change can resurrect a season undone by the sting of a controversial call and the weight of five turnovers.