Broncos Win The Game, But Lose Their Quarterback

Minutes after the Denver Broncos clinched a spot in the AFC Championship Game with a 33-30 overtime victory over the Buffalo Bills, CBS sideline reporter Tracy Wolfson noticed that something was off with the winning quarterback. "One thing to keep an eye on. It looked like Bo Nix got hurt at the end of the game," she reported. "Possibly his knee. Something to watch."

It wasn't Nix's knee, but he had suffered an injury, one that would abruptly end his season even though he didn't miss a play in Saturday's game. Broncos head coach Sean Payton said afterward that his starting QB had broken a bone in his right ankle and would have surgery on Tuesday, ruling him out for the remainder of the playoffs. Payton said the injury to Nix's ankle occurred on "the second-to-last play" of overtime, "before he threw the pass to [Marvin] Mims." That play, a designed run for Nix, resulted in a two-yard loss, but he didn't seem worse for wear as he got up. On the next play, he threw a deep pass intended for Mims that drew defensive pass interference on Bills cornerback Tre'Davious White, giving Denver a 30-yard boost and ultimately setting up Wil Lutz's game-winning field goal.

Nix had 279 passing yards and three touchdowns in the win, but his injury overshadowed an objectively entertaining game with an underwhelming conclusion. The first half was evenly competitive until Nix threw a 29-yard TD pass to Lil'Jordan Humphrey, giving the Broncos a 17-10 lead with 22 seconds left before halftime. Buffalo's offense took the field with 16 seconds remaining and chose to run a play, a decision that came back to bite them. Bills QB Josh Allen gained 12 yards on a run then committed a mind-numbingly bad fumble, which the Broncos recovered, preserving two seconds on the clock. Lutz capitalized on the opportunity by nailing a 50-yard field goal as time expired, and suddenly Buffalo was down by two possessions.

The Bills had the ball to open the second half, and lost it within a minute. Broncos linebacker Nik Bonitto strip-sacked Allen, and the defense recovered the ball at Buffalo's 17-yard line. That led to another Lutz field goal. Despite the 23-10 deficit, Allen compensated for his early mistakes and kept the Bills in the game. The Broncos offense became a little more conservative in the second half as they tried to maintain their lead.

Allen appeared much more composed in the fourth quarter. His lovely TD pass to Dalton Kincaid, plus a Matt Prater field goal, gave Buffalo a 27-23 lead with about four minutes remaining, but Nix embraced the deep ball on the following drive and hit Mims for a 26-yard TD to regain the lead, 30-27. With three timeouts, Allen orchestrated a 50-second drive to put Prater in a position to force overtime.

What happened in OT would've been the main story if not for Nix's ankle. The Broncos' first drive flopped after four plays, and Allen had the opportunity to set up a field goal to win it. The Bills QB launched a deep pass to Brandin Cooks, who looked like he caught the ball but lost it to cornerback Ja'Quan McMillian as the two tumbled on the ground.

Officials ruled that the play was an interception by McMillian, but didn't spend much time dwelling on it. Given how so many more routine plays are drawn out by replay litigation in an average NFL game, it felt strange to move along so quickly without an extended look. After the game, Bills head coach Sean McDermott focused on this moment of the loss.

"It’s hard for me to—and I've had a chance to look at it—it's hard for me to understand why it was ruled the way it was ruled," McDermott said postgame. “And 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. To make sure that we have this thing right, because that’s a pivotal play in the game. We have the ball at the 20, maybe kicking a game-winning field goal right there."

The NFL has endlessly legislated the concept of a catch, but going by its own arcane rules, it looked like the right call. Dion Dawkins can post a screenshot out of context if he wants, but that wasn't the end of the play. As with any catch in this situation, Cooks has to maintain possession as he hits the ground. He didn't, but the ball also didn't touch the ground, so it can't be ruled an incompletion. McMillian holds on and comes up with the interception. That said, McDermott has a point: It would've been a lot less aggravating or confusing if the officiating crew had stopped play to at least give it a closer examination, then deliver the rationale to the audience. Instead we got a dispassionate pool report from referee Carl Cheffers after the game.

The officiating calls on the Broncos' game-winning drive weren't as controversial, but by then led Bills fans to believe they were being totally screwed over. (It's difficult to buy the idea that the NFL had an agenda against the team with the reigning MVP, in favor of Sean Payton.) On a second-down pass play for the Broncos, Bills cornerback Taron Johnson was hit with a ticky-tack call for defensive pass interference. His teammate Joey Bosa was flagged for roughing the passer on the same play, so either way Denver's offense was going to get enough penalty yards to reach the edge of field-goal range. The DPI call on White was so obvious that it's not even worth litigating here, but it made Lutz's kick a lot easier.

Sloppy officiating marred an otherwise excellent NFL playoff game—what else is new? But the Bills put themselves in a hole with five total turnovers, including the disputed McMillian pick. Even with no Patrick Mahomes to haunt them in the postseason, Buffalo couldn't close out the game, despite having many chances to do so. Allen is now 0-7 in overtime for his career, three of those losses coming in the playoffs. They can't all be bad luck.

As for the AFC title game, the Broncos are expected to start QB2 Jarrett Stidham, who hasn't seen a meaningful snap of football since 2023; Sam Ehlinger will be the backup. Denver will face the winner of Sunday afternoon's game between the Houston Texans and New England Patriots. If Sean Payton somehow reaches the Super Bowl with Stidham as his QB, go ahead and give him the next three Coach of the Year awards.