In an NFL playoff classic, the Denver Broncos have advanced to the AFC Championship Game with a 33-30 overtime win over the Buffalo Bills.
The AFC Championship Game will be in Denver next week, with the winner of tomorrow’s Texans-Patriots game facing the Broncos for the right to play in Super Bowl LX.
The NFL playoff overtime rules guarantee each team a possession, and the Bills won the overtime coin toss and chose to kick, thinking it’s better to know what they need on their first possession.
The Broncos picked up one first down before they punted on their first offensive possession, leaving the Bills to take over at their own 7-yard line for their first possession. where Josh Allen took over, driving the Bills down the field.
Eventually, Allen threw a deep ball to Brandin Cooks deep in Broncos territory, Cooks grabbed it, went to the ground with Broncos defensive back Ja’Quan McMillian, and McMillian came up with the ball. The ruling on the field was that McMillian intercepted the pass. The Bills called a timeout, hoping the referee would review the replay and rule it a catch from Cooks, but they never stopped the game for a replay review.
From there, the Broncos’ offense took over, and when Bo Nix threw a deep ball to Courtland Sutton, Bills defensive back Taron Johnson was flagged for pass interference, moving Denver into long field goal range. Then Nix threw another deep ball, and another Bills defensive back, Tre’Davious White, was called for a 30-yard pass interference penalty. White then got an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for yelling at the official. That set up the Broncos in easy field goal range.
Wil Lutz kicked the 24-yard game winner, and the Broncos are one win away from the Super Bowl.
We have overtime in the NFL divisional playoffs.
The Bills and Broncos are tied 30-30 at the end of the fourth quarter, and now they will go to overtime.
NFL playoff overtime rules guarantee both teams a possession, and they’ll play 15-minute quarters until there’s a winner, as if it were a whole new game.
Overtime comes after a thrilling, back-and-forth fourth quarter in which Broncos quarterback Bo Nix hit Marvin Mims for a 26-yard touchdewn with 55 seconds left to take a 30-27 lead, only to have Bills kicker Matt Prater hit a 50-yard field goal to tie the game.
Now overtime will start with a coin toss, and the team winning the toss can choose to kick, receive, defer or select which goal to defend. Both teams get a possession, even if the team that receives the overtime kickoff scores a touchdown. If there’s a touchdown on the first possession, that team will then kick off and the other team will have a chance to score a touchdown of its own. The only situation in which both teams would not get a possession would be if the team on defense first scores a safety. In that case, the safety would win the game.
The winner goes to the AFC Championship Game.
With the Broncos’ facing fourth-and-9 at the Bills’ 40-yard line late in the third quarter, Sean Payton could have tried a 58-yard field goal at Denver’s altitude. Or he could have trusted his offense to pick up a fourth down. He did neither, and he now may be regretting it.
Payton sent in his punt team, and after a 25-yard punt to the Bills’ 15-yard line, Josh Allen marched Buffalo’s offense down the field on a nine-play, 85-yard drive that ended with a touchdown pass to Dalton Kincaid.
The extra point gave the Bills a 24-23 lead in the fourth quarter.
A field goal would have made it a two-possession game, and picking up a fourth-down conversion might have led to a touchdown. If the Bills win this game, Payton will be facing plenty of questions about why he decided to punt.
Two Josh Allen fumbles that set up two Broncos field goals are the difference in Denver, late in the third quarter.
Allen lost two fumbles in three snaps, and the Broncos’ outstanding pass rusher, Nik Bonitto, forced both of them. One of Allen’s fumbles set up a field goal on the last play of the second quarter, and the other set up a field goal early in the third quarter, and the Broncos took a 23-10 lead.
But Allen then led the Bills’ offense down the field on a nine-play, 73-yard drive that ended with Allen throwing a touchdown pass to Keon Coleman. That cut the Broncos’ lead to 23-17.
The six-point margin is attributable to the two field goals off the two Allen fumbles. But the Bills intercepted Bo Nix late in the third quarter, and now the Bills need Allen to redeem himself late in the game.
An incredibly costly Josh Allen fumble changed the game just before halftime today in Denver.
After the Broncos had scored a touchdown to take a 17-10 lead, the Bills were in a position where they could have just had Allen take a knee and go into halftime down by seven. Instead, Allen ran the ball, fumbled, and the Broncos recovered with two seconds remaining in the second quarter. Denver kicked a field goal as time expired for a 20-10 lead at halftime.
Just before that costly Allen fumble, Broncos quarterback Bo Nix had hit wide receiver Lil’Jordan Humphrey in the end zone. It was the second time Nix had hit Humphrey in the end zone, but the first time Humphrey held onto the ball, as he had dropped what should have been a touchdown in the first quarter.
The Bills’ 20-10 deficit is certainly not insurmountable, but they have to go into halftime frustrated that they fumbled away a one-score game and turned it into a two-score deficit at the end of the first half.
