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Cincinnati Bengals star quarterback Joe Burrow might not be in the playoffs, but he’s making some of the controversial plays of the postseason.
The catch-not-catch debate involving Buffalo Bills wide receiver Brandin Cooks is still being talked about after the team’s Divisional Round loss to the Denver Broncos on Saturday night.
While many have weighed in on the controversial play, the remaining two games of Sunday’s Divisional Round also featured some questionable receiving calls.
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Ja’quan McMillian of the Denver Broncos intercepts a pass intended for Brandin Cooks of the Buffalo Bills during overtime in the AFC divisional playoff game at Empower Field At Mile High on January 17, 2026 in Denver, Colorado. (Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)
Burrow seemed to side with the officials in every case.
“The number of people who don’t understand what a catch is in the rule book blows my mind. And it’s not the umpires,” Burrow wrote in X. “Both plays yesterday were not tough calls and they got them right.”
The play involving Cooks remains an issue for football fans, let alone the city of Buffalo. If a catch had been ruled out, Matt Prater could have made it with a field goal, and the Bills would be in New England.
Instead, the play was ruled an interception by the Broncos, who ultimately won the game and advanced to the AFC Championship Game.
As for the two plays Burrow references in his tweet, it’s not known exactly what he’s talking about, but there was one play from each game on Sunday where the debate occurred.
First, Houston Texans wide receiver Xavier Hutchinson fumbled, but the play was ruled a catch after the referees reviewed it. Then, Los Angeles Rams star Davante Adams had a similar situation when his knee hit the turf, but he lost the ball.
In both cases, the offense maintained control of the ball, although there were some who believed Cook’s play should have had the same result.
NFL rules analyst Walt Anderson weighed in on the Broncos’ interception and said Jaquan McMillan effectively took the ball away from Cooks, who he believes never had full control of it.
“The replay has all these angles to take a look and see ‘was the call on the field wrong or was it right?'” Anderson said on NFL Network. “If you can confirm that the decision on the field is correct, they really want to move the game forward and don’t want to have unnecessary stoppages.”
Sean McDermott, who has since been fired from his position as Bills head coach, was furious about the call confirmation process. He wanted the referees to look closely at the play, which led to calling a timeout.
Joe Burrow (9) of the Cincinnati Bengals plays against the Cleveland Browns at Huntington Bank Field on September 7, 2025 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
“It would make sense to me … that the head referee would walk over and want to go take a look at it, just to make sure that everyone in the stadium up there is on the same page. That’s too big a play, in my opinion, and a play that potentially decided the game as well, to even slow it down,” McDermott said.
“It’s hard for me to understand why it was governed the way it was governed. If it was governed that way, then why didn’t it slow down just to make sure we had this right? That would have made a lot of sense to me, to make sure we had this right. Because that’s a pivotal play in the game. We have the ball at the 20-yard line, maybe kicking a game-winning field goal right there. So I’ll leave it at that.”
