WATCH: Broncos Beat Bills After Highly Controversial Call

NFL officials have greatly influenced the outcomes of many games this season. Why should the postseason be any different?

During the overtime period of Saturday’s AFC divisional round clash between the Buffalo and Denver, Bills QB Josh Allen fired a deep shot to wide receiver Brandin Cooks, which, at first glance, seemed to put Buffalo in position to win the game. However, as Cooks and the defender on the play, JaQuan McMillan, came to the ground. McMillan rolled over the top of Cooks and came out with the ball.

The official nearest the play immediately ruled it an interception and signaled the change of possession. Bills head coach Sean McDermott called a timeout to give the officials a chance to review what appeared, by all rights, to be a very close call. Cooks appeared to have possession of the ball and to be down by contact by virtue of having his knee on the ground and being touched by McMillan.

Instead, the officials declined to take an extended view of what had transpired, and the ruling on the field stood.

After the game, referee Carl Cheffer explained the officials’ reasoning.

“The receiver has to complete the process of a catch,” Cheffers said. “He was going to the ground as part of the process of the catch, and he lost possession of the ball when he hit the ground. The defender gained possession of it at that point. The defender is the one that completed the process of the catch, so the defender was awarded the ball.”

Of course, as the above images show, Cooks had his knee down in possession of the ball, and he was lying on his side with possession, all while being touched by the defender.

It seems as though the play should have been ruled a completion ot Cooks, or incomplete.

Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio noted the lack of consistency with the NFL’s rulings on such plays by contrasting Cooks’ catch with the Week 14 game between the Steelers and the Ravens, when the ruling on the field of an interception was overturned in a play where Aaron Rodgers was a receiver and failed to “survive the ground.”

“The offensive player had control of the ball, and as he was going to the ground, there was a hand in there, but he never lost control of the ball, and then his knees hit the ground in control,” said NFL V.P. of instant replay Mark Butterworth at the time. “So therefore, by rule, he is down by contact with control of the ball.”

If it was ruled that way in Week 14, then it should have been in the playoffs as well.