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The Denver Broncos' trip to the playoffs was short lived in 2024-25, as Sean Payton's squad was bounced from the Wild Card round in emphatic fashion during a 31-7 rout at the hands of the Buffalo Bills. The Broncos scored early on a huge touchdown from Bo Nix to Troy Franklin, but they didn't have enough talent to hang with the Bills for the whole game.
One of the biggest plays of the game came in the second half. The Bills had a 13-7 lead and were facing fourth-and-1 in Broncos territory, and Sean McDermott elected to be aggressive and go for it. The Broncos defense initially stuffed Buffalo's play call, but Josh Allen extended the play and found Ty Johnson for a 25-yard touchdown.
There was an extensive review after the play to determine whether Johnson got his feet down inbounds before one of his feet scraped the white paint in the back of the end zone. Even though it was a very close call, the officials stuck with the call on the field of touchdown, and the Bills went for two to take a 21-7 lead.
After the game, Payton and star cornerback Patrick Surtain II both weighed in on the controversial call.
“I think it deflated our guys,” Payton said, via Troy Renck of the Denver Post. “It's a big play. It was fourth down. You're battling, it was still fairly early. I don't know that there was a great angle [of the catch], it was hard for me to see a good angle. … Look, we got beat today, and especially in the postseason that's always a bitter pill to swallow.”
“When they reviewed it, I thought it was out,” Surtain said, via Zac Stevens of DNVR Sports.
That play seemed to swing the momentum entirely in the Bills' favor and open the floodgates for the blowout. The Broncos defense was keeping them in the game for a while, but the offense could never get any more points on the board after that initial score and the Bills eventually were able to pull away.
