BUFFALO – As Bills fan, the controversial ending in Saturday’s 33-30 overtime loss to the Denver Broncos in the AFC Divisional Playoff hit Sabres coach Lindy Ruff hard.
“I don’t know enough about it even be standing here commenting,” Ruff said following Sunday’s practice in KeyBank Center. “But I, like most of the Buffalo fans, just felt you’re stabbed in the gut with a knife. That’s what it felt like to me.”
As a coach, having lost the Stanley Cup in 1999 on a disputed goal, Ruff understands as well as anyone what Sean McDermott and Bills are feeling following the questionable interception that possibly cost them a trip to the AFC Championship.
Before Broncos cornerback Ja’Quan McMillan came up with the ball, Bills receiver Brandin Cooks grabbed quarterback Josh Allen’s pass and appeared to be down – his knee touched the ground and there was contact from McMillan.
The Broncos went down the field and kicked the game-winning field goal.
McDermott couldn’t challenge the play because coaches can’t challenge in overtime. He told reporters he called a timeout to slow the process because he believed a proper review wasn’t taking place.
While on-field officials did not stop to look at the play, NFL replay officials in New York watched it, according to ESPN.
“That play is not even close. That’s a catch all the way … and nobody can convince me that that ball is not caught and in possession of Buffalo,” McDermott told a pool reporter following his news conference, according to ESPN. “I just have no idea how the NFL handled it, in particular, the way that they did. I think the players and the fans deserve an explanation, you know?”
Ruff, who watched Brett Hull score the overtime winner with his foot in the crease for the Dallas Stars in Game 6 of the Cup final almost 27 years ago, can sympathize.
“I thought that the play that Sean is talking about it eerily like our ‘No Goal’ in ‘99,” Ruff said. “What’s the rule? We’ve had that debate. I totally get it.”
Ruff referenced a review last Sunday in the Bills’ 27-24 Wild Card win over the Jaguars.
“It took two, three minutes to decide whether the clock expired, why wouldn’t it take two, three minutes to decide whether this guy was down on the ground with the ball and he had been touched, and is that a catch?” he said. “Why was that so definitive so fast?”
Ruff said in those moments following the game, McDermott wasn’t blaming officials, he was simply displaying “raw emotion.”
“I think you want a better explanation,” he said. “You feel like maybe there was a better call to make, like tie goes to the offensive guy. I know that tie goes to the runner in baseball. I thought tie went to the offensive guy in football, too. I might be a biased Bills fans, though. That’s probably the way everybody will take it.”
