This is the tenth year that I have “written” about American football and doing some quick calculations I realized that in all this time I will have told you, described and vivisected several thousand games.
The vocabulary is always the same, the syntax is paralyzed by the technical and narrative needs of this discipline and, in general, the summaries are the articles that bore me the most: what happened in Denver, however, puts me in difficulty.
Identifying the words that can do justice to the neurotic 33 to 30 with which the Broncos kicked Josh Allen and his Buffalo Bills out of the playoffs will be tremendously complicated: I have in fact witnessed few games as emotionally draining as the one that earned the Broncos the AFC Championship Game and the Bills the most painful defeat of the Allen era.
If you haven’t had the opportunity to see it, I highly recommend you catch it because games like this are rare.
The Broncos’ first drive was substantially perfect, Nix and his teammates traveled the field in 14 snaps, consuming more than seven minutes, but all this effort earned them the misery of 3 points, an insufficient haul when on the other side there is a seasoned and brilliant team like Buffalo: the opportunity to take home the six-plus-one points literally slipped from the hands of Lil’Jordan Humphrey in end zone.
Without much ado, Allen and Cook did Denver the favor with a 12-play drive capped by Mecole Hardman’s touchdown: Yes, the Bills’ battery of receivers is so injured that they really had to turn to Mecole Hardman 2026 years after the birth of Christ.
The following three n’ out of Denver handed over the invisible reins of inertia to Buffalo who immediately started moving the chains again without difficulty: out of nowhere, however, came Buffalo’s first turnover of the day, a fumble di James Cook su primo down in zona field goal.
Reinvigorated by the generosity of the guests, Denver started to grind out the game again just like in the first drive but, this time, it gave itself a more satisfactory outcome thanks to a touchdown of Frank Crumall’anagrafe offensive lineman.
I often tell you that the Broncos’ defense is one of the best ever, but apparently this wasn’t communicated to Josh Allen as immediately after conceding a TD he put together the second drive lasting more than 7 minutes of his day – out of three plays: this time, however, the Bills were the protagonists of a rare empty drive in the red zone and had to settle for three points.
With just over two laps of the clock separating the first half from his own conclusion, Nix gave himself a drive like an absolute veteran, managing the clock and timeouts perfectly until connecting in the end zone with Lil’Jordan Humphrey for the touchdown of 17 to 10 – and redemption – about twenty seconds after the long break.
In a rare moment of immaturity, Allen tightened the knot of his superhero cape too much, thus obstructing his airway just enough to prevent him from thinking with the clarity we are led to expect from a quarterback like that: this is the only explanation I can find al fumble of rare and unforgivable stupidity with which he went on to give another three points to the Broncos – which arrived thanks to a 50-yard shot by Will Lutz.
I understand the desire to overdo it, but an expert and brilliant quarterback like him must always be aware of the situation he finds himself in and, with 15 seconds left in the second quarter, all this irresponsibility with the ball makes no sense.
Following 10 points in the final 30 seconds of the quarter, Denver headed into the locker room up 20-10.
As soon as he returned to the pitch, Allen gave an encore of the horror he was guilty of a quarter of an hour earlier, although this time through a much more socially acceptable strip sack by Nik Bonitto who brought Buffalo’s turnover count to 3, thus giving another 3 points to the home team unable to take full advantage of another rare Allen turnover.
Down two almost full possessions, the reigning MVP put his head back on his shoulders by leading a furious drive that culminated in the repudiated touchdown Keon Coleman which brought his team back by 6 points at 23 to 17 Broncos.
After this goal the inertia seemed to have once again shifted to the Bills’ side as poor Nix committed the first real mistake of his day by firing an interception collected by defensive lineman Walker… only to see Allen return the favor through the first interception of his game.
Be careful that the turnovers are starting to be too many here, it is unrealistic to think of winning after having made so many errors on the scoresheet.
All this commotion, however, led to a useless punt by Denver which gave way to Buffalo’s overtaking drive which arrived thanks to a nice touchdown di Kincaid at the end of a drive made interesting by a 46-yard reception by Shakir: 24 to 23 Bills.
Shaken by the inevitability of Josh Allen, Denver was unable to move beyond the three n’ out and Buffalo, with inertia once again on their side, started moving the chains again at will, catapulting themselves into the red zone following yet another drive that lasted more than 7 minutes: with the possibility of putting a serious threat on the game, Allen and his teammates were forced to settle for the 3 points that brought them +4 with four laps of the clock to go before the final whistle.
In the first great moment of truth of his career, Nix responded by carrying his department, his team and his city on his shoulders, converting a couple of heavy third downs and, above all, finding Marvin Mims in the end zone for the splendid touchdown of 30 to 27.
In throwing for Mims we are faced with all the talent of a quarterback who at times seems not to be asked to do too much but who, if needed, has demonstrated that he has a golden arm: in the history of the Denver Broncos you will struggle to find equally wonderful throws.
It’s just a shame that this touchdown came with about a minute to play, more than enough time for Allen to get his team into the field goal zone: done.
I would like to point out to you a nicehook and ladder between Shakir and Davis with which the attack led by Allen put Prater in a position to give another quarter to this psychodrama of a match with a 50-yard set piece which Prater, obviously, converted.
Supplementary, then.
The ball went to Denver who, however, after four snaps gave it back to Buffalo who, to be honest, would have even started to move the chains, but at a certain point Allen went looking in depth for Brandin Cooks: for having found him he also found him, it’s just a shame that McMillan snatched the ball from his hands guaranteeing possession of it for a interception. This is a referee’s choice that we will talk about at length, to be honest it seemed to me that Cooks had touched the ground with the ball in his hand, but imagine if in 2026 we can have uniformity of judgment on what is – or is not – a reception. Yes, in my opinion this was a reception that would have put Buffalo in position to win it with a field goal as Denver had already completed their first possession of overtime.
The ball goes back to Denver who, after reaching the halfway point thanks to a 17-yard reception from Harvey, enjoyed two pass interference – almost – consecutive which earned her the 47 yards that put Lutz in the position to win it with an easy 23-yard shot: Denver Broncos at the Championship Game…
… without being able to count on Bo Nix who in the final stages of the match suffered a broken ankle that will cost him the rest of the promising postseason.
The Broncos will be competing for access to the Super Bowl in a week with Jarrett Stidham and it is incredibly cruel to have to metabolize such news immediately after their most exciting victory in ten years.
Simply devastating defeat for the Buffalo Bills condemned to capitulate by 5 turnovers which earned the Broncos 16 of the 33 points scored.
Buffalo finished ahead under almost every statistical heading and also managed to shine in red zone defense – where it limited Denver to a disastrous 1 out of 4 -, but I think you’ve seen enough American football to be well aware that winning with 5 turnovers under your belt is pure and simple utopia.
I admit seeing Josh Allen sob during the press conference managed to break my heart in his own way: as I repeated to you ad nauseamin light of the numerous luxury absences what they had in their hands was probably an unrepeatable opportunity to finally give the city of Buffalo that damned Lombardi.
All the pathos I used to tell you about the Broncos’ victory over the Bills has nothing to do with what happened in Seattle, where the Seahawks demolished the San Francisco 49ers with a 41 to 6 which leaves little room for interpretation – and the emotionality of the writer.
Imagine that in Seattle it took just 13 seconds to collect more points than San Francisco scored during the entire match, the time needed to Shaheed to return the kickoff to the end zone.
At the end of the first quarter the 49ers were already down 17 to 0 as the response of the attack led by Brock Purdy resulted in a turnover on downs shortly after midfield and on a fumble by Jake Tonges, the replacement for poor George Kittle.
When San Francisco had finally managed to move the score thanks to a pair of field goals by Pineiro, Seattle increased the lead thanks to the first touchdown of the day by Kenneth Walker who, apparently, kept all the touchdowns for the playoffs as he would have finished the game with 116 rushing yards and 3 touchdowns, exactly the numbers that whoever selected him in fantasy football was hoping for.
The first half of the game therefore ended at 24 to 6 for the home team and to bring the story of this match to a close I will only need to tell you that the three drives faced by San Francisco in the third quarter were concluded by turnover on downsinterception and again turnover on downs which allowed Seattle to add another 17 points to the tally of a game that ended well before the start of the last quarter.
Simply dominant performance from the home team’s defensive department which forced San Francisco into three turnovers and threes turnover on downs from which he got 27 of the 41 total points: also for this reason the Seahawks attack finished with less than 300 yards of total offense.
They didn’t need to put together drives who knows how long to move the score.
And this is how Seattle punched its ticket to the Championship Game, led by a defense that to define as dominant would be an understatement: Darnold, who entered the field in apparently precarious physical conditions, was only asked to attempt 17 passes, a number that protected him from the errors that worried me so much.
San Francisco instead encountered the worst possible day at the worst possible moment, but this empty lap in no way disavows a season that remains prodigious regardless of the outcome: it’s clear that Macdonald’s defense gives Shanahan enormous problems, but I refuse to elevate what happened tonight as an emblem of a failure that simply doesn’t exist.
