It was still a really fun game
The Buffalo Bills hosted the Denver Broncos for Super Wild Card Weekend of the 2025 NFL Playoffs and holy moly was it a fun game. Even in a dominant playoff win though, not everything can be perfect — and there were a few blemishes in the penalty department.
Let’s expose the game’s warts with some GIFs and rules talk.
Standard and Advanced Metrics
Penalty Counts
These bars are pretty clear aren’t they? The Bills had a much worse day with flags than the Broncos did according to the traditional stats. There were no declined or offset flags either, so all we have is the traditional stats of assessed flags.
Penalty Yards
This graphic is a little more interesting though, isn’t it? Despite being a tick above average in count, Buffalo was a tick below average in assessed yards. This would suggest a lean toward procedural penalties — and while that’s not exactly wrong, it’s not the full story either.
Penalty Harm
Denver Broncos
This is not a very exciting chart. The Broncos had a scant 3.7 Harm total, which is a very clean day when it comes to flags. There’s no point discussing the false start, but the two unnecessary roughness calls warrant a little discussion I suppose.
Wide receiver Marvin Mims was flagged for unnecessary roughness after starting a brief skirmish following a punt return. You should remember it not only because it was the play where Mack Hollins demolished Mims (more on that in a second) right as he was fielding the ball, but also because it was the only Bills punt. Mims got up angry and cost his team half the distance to the goal.
Brandon Jones’ roughness call was also memorable as it was perhaps a bad play by Josh Allen. It was the attempted pass toward rookie running back Ray Davis that floated and Davis took a hit to the head from Jones. That’s not how the Bills wanted to get the first down.
There was also a controversial no-call that led to a field goal for Buffalo. Josh Allen took a sack on third down toward the beginning of the third quarter. This wasn’t called…
Allen was a bit frustrated to say the least, as this is a pretty obvious no-call that potentially cost the Bills four points. This was third down and locked in the field goal attempt. Had it been called correctly, it’d have been first down pretty much close enough for Allen to fall forward for a score.
Buffalo Bills
Feel free to ask about the calculations in the comments, but, overall, the Bills weren’t really hurt by flags all that much. They only ended the game with 6.5 Harm, which is higher than Denver but still well below the bad day threshold of 10.0 Harm.
There were several procedural as hinted at above with three false starts and one illegal shift accounting for four of the seven flags. Spencer Brown’s false start is kind of funny though, since it occurred after the Bills were backed up at their own one-yard line after a great punt. The false start was pretty meaningless, distance wise.
The two holding call were both pretty obvious, so there are no GIFs for cornerback Christian Benford or tight end Dalton Kincaid’s flags. That really leaves us with one flag to review: Mack Hollins’ taunting flag. Let’s take a peek.
I was lucky enough to be at the game and this play happened right in front of me. The chosen GIF is actually a decent approximation of my point of view. Also thank you to my sister for inviting me. One of the season ticket holders behind me asked out loud why this was called. That’s different than the rest of the stadium crowd, which just rained “boos” down on the officials. I hadn’t seen the hand pushing down the head of the defender or I may have cited that. Instead I turned back and mentioned this…
After knocking Marvin Mims’ ribcage all the way into training camp, Mack Hollins did pretty much what we saw later in the game for the one that was called taunting. In neither case does Hollins need to walk over the opponent, he’s choosing to. On the one that was called, he was engaged in some extracurriculars too. As for this one, he even slapped the helmet on his way through.
I enjoy Mack Hollins the player, and he seems like a weird enough dude that I’d enjoy hanging out with him too. I do not enjoy this. I’m also not shocked they called it the second time as Hollins didn’t exactly avoid putting a bullseye on his jersey. Last but not least, it makes Mims’ getting up and into peoples’ faces a little more understandable.
I have one more thing to mention as Bills fans have a valid reason to feel a bit cheated by the refs — as noted above on that no-call. Did you know that an offensive player is not allowed to pull a runner for any reason?
Here’s what I recall my live commentary being on this play:
“Dion, no! Stop. Stop Dion. No, no, no, no, no! Dion, stop pulling!”
This was early on in the Bills’ first touchdown drive. This is a 10-yard flag, and the Bills may have overcome it and still scored a touchdown. There is a chance though that the 10 yards would have set them back and they failed to convert, changing the early tone of the game.
The missed defensive holding on Kincaid occurred in the beginning of the third quarter. Buffalo was only up by three and the resulting field goal after the no-call put them up by six. A touchdown would have had them up by 10, accelerating the blowout.
In the “What If..?” game, both flags were potentially impactful — meaning both teams have legitimate gripes.