Brandin Cooks still isn’t ready to let go of the play that helped define the Broncos’ division-round win over Buffalo last season.
The Denver cornerback Ja’Quan McMillian came away with the interception on Josh Allen’s deep throw in a wild sequence that had both McMillian and Cooks airborne and appearing to have a shot at the ball. When the two came down and rolled through the finish of the play, McMillian had possession, and Denver finished off the Bills 33-30.
But Cooks sees it differently.
According to a report from Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk, citing Cooks’ comments to Tim Graham of The Athletic, the receiver still believes it should have been ruled a catch.
“For a week straight, I was watching it over and over,” Cooks said. “But I knew, as a father, that I had to put it away. If I’d have kept watching, it would have put me in some type of mood that my wife and my kids didn’t deserve.”
Cooks said he’s still working through the moment, but the conversation kept going until it landed squarely in sour-grapes territory.
“I will continue to process it until I get back on the field,” Cooks said, “but I think the biggest thing I can say is that I still feel like it was a catch. After it happened, seeing some of the so-called controversial calls that were called a catch, I just had to turn the playoffs off because I’m like, ‘Yo, what is going on?’ For me, the way that my mind operates is, ‘OK, what can I do about it?’
“And what I can do about it is get back on the field, continue to work on being the best that I can be and making sure next time it’s a catch-and-run for a touchdown and leave it in no one else’s hands.”
It’s not the first time Cooks has found himself attached to a play people still debate. In Super Bowl LII, when he was with the New England Patriots, he tried to hurdle Philadelphia Eagles safety Rodney McLeod after making a catch in the second quarter, and plenty of people still believe that moment helped swing the game against New England.
There’s also a bit of irony in Cooks’ complaint. He has faced criticism before for not fighting hard enough on 50/50 balls, the kind of throws that ask a receiver to make a play through contact. That issue has followed him at different points in his career, and this latest reaction suggests he’s nowhere near done replaying the McMillian interception in his head.
“It doesn’t keep me up or give me unhealthy flashbacks,” Cooks said. “But from a competitive nature, I still think about not winning the Super Bowl as if it happened yesterday.”
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