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Cincinnati Bengals star quarterback Joe Burrow may not be in the playoffs, but he is on some of the most controversial plays of the postseason.
The catch-versus-no-catch debate involving Buffalo Bills wide receiver Brandin Cooks is still talked about after the team’s divisional round loss to the Denver Broncos on Saturday night.
While many have given their take on the controversial play, the two remaining divisional round games on Sunday also had some debatable demands for catches.
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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 amount of people who don’t understand what a catch is in the rulebook amazes me. And it’s not the officials,” Burrow wrote on X. “The two plays yesterday weren’t hard calls and they both got them right.”
The play involving Cooks remains a pain point for football fans, let alone the city of Buffalo. If a catch was called, Matt Prater could have given it up with a field goal and the Bills would have advanced to New England.
Instead, the play was ruled an interception by the Broncos, who eventually won the game and advanced to the AFC Championship Game.
As for the two plays Burrow is referring to in his tweet, it’s unclear exactly what he’s talking about, but there was one play from each game Sunday that sparked debate.
At first, Houston Texans wide receiver Xavier Hutchinson fumbled, but the play was ruled a catch after the officials reviewed it. Then, Los Angeles Rams star Davante Adams experienced a similar situation when his knee hit the turf, but he fumbled.
In both cases, the offense maintained control of the ball, although there were some who felt the Cooks play should have seen the same result.
NFL rules analyst Walt Anderson weighed in on the interception for the Broncos, saying Jaquan McMillan actually pulled the ball away from Cooks, who he believes never had complete control of it.
“Replay has all these angles to look at and see” was the on-field ruling wrong or was the on-field ruling correct? ” Anderson said on NFL Network. “If you can confirm that the ruling on the field is correct, they really want to move the play and they don’t want unnecessary stops.”
Sean McDermott, who has since been fired from his role as Bills head coach, was angry at the process of how the call was confirmed. He wanted officials to take a long look at the play, which led to his timeout call.
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 seem logical to me … that the manager would go and take a look at it, just to make sure everybody from here that’s in the stadium and there is on the same page. It’s too big a play, in my estimation, and a play that potentially decided the game to not even slow it down,” McDermott said.
“It’s hard for me to understand why it was ruled the way it was ruled. If it’s ruled that way, why wasn’t it slowed just to make sure we got this right? That would have made a lot of sense to me, to make sure we got this thing right. Because it’s a crucial play in the game. We have the ball at the 20, so I can just kick a field goal there.”
