HOUSTON – We are witnessing before our eyes, week after week after week, one of the worst offenses the 59-year-old Buffalo Bills have ever fielded.
And what is so shameful about this repeated horridness is that the Bills have been playing mostly outstanding defense since the second half of the Week 2 loss to the Chargers, and their 20-13 loss to the Houston Texans was so preventable.
In the end, the game was decided when Nathan Peterman, playing for the injured Josh Allen, threw a pick six to Houston cornerback Jonathan Joseph with 1:23 left, just moments after the Texans had driven 91 yards to the game-tying field goal.
It was a catastrophic end to a game that, despite all of the struggles of the offense, was right there for the taking.
After propping the Bills up all day with a relentless performance, the defense allowed the long drive, but even that was a win because after a 41-yard pass interference penalty in the end zone on Phillip Gaines, the Bills kept the Texans out of the end zone and Houston settled for the field goal.
But then out came the offense, and on second-and-10 from the 25, Peterman tried to hit Kelvin Benjamin on the left sideline and threw it right to Joseph who pranced untouched into the end zone.
Peterman then closed it out with a second interception that ended the day.
It is almost impossible to be as bad as the Bills’ offense has been at the start of this 2018 season. It’s 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers bad. You remember that team, the winless expansion outfit whose coach, John McKay, once said when he was asked about the execution of his offense that he was “in favor of it.”
The offense was not alone in blowing this game, though. Buffalo’s special teams put forth a truly awful performance.
Rookie Ray Ray McCloud fumbled on the opening kickoff, but was fortunate that fellow rookie Siran Neal recovered. Later in the first quarter, there was no one to bail out McCloud when he muffed a punt and the Texans recovered at the Bills 29.
That set up Deshaun Watson’s 13-yard touchdown pass to DeAndre Hopkins on a pass that was perfect, and then was caught brilliantly by Hopkins despite tight coverage from Tre’Davious White.
Early in the second quarter, another meltdown occurred when the left side of Buffalo’s punt protection broke down and Tyrell Adams blocked Corey Bojorquez’s punt, giving the Texans a drive start at the Buffalo 21. But here, the defense rose up and forced a field goal and the Houston lead increased to only 10-0.
The count could have risen just before the end of the half, but Watson made a terrible decision by throwing across his body into the middle of the end zone – the same mistake Josh Allen made in Green Bay – and Jordan Poyer picked it off to take Houston points off the board.
At the half, the Bills had four first downs and 53 yards of total offense, and it looked like they would have no chance to win. But the defense continued to impose its will after the break, and the offense finally started to chip in.
Lorenzo Alexander tipped and then intercepted a Watson pass at the Houston 30, and while the offense didn’t punch it in, Stephen Hauschka made a 22-yard field goal.
After two Houston possessions went nowhere, Allen and Benjamin finally made contributions to the effort when Allen fired a 39-yard pass which Benjamin caught at the Houston 40. It was on this series where Allen suffered an apparent elbow injury and his day came to an end.
In came Peterman, and he failed to convert a first down, so Hauschka was called on to make a 52-yard field goal that cut the gap to 10-6.
Buffalo then moved into the lead early in the fourth quarter, thanks again to the defense. Trent Murphy and Jerry Hughes sacked Watson, forced a fumble, and Harrison Phillips recovered at the Texans 32.
Here, four runs moved the ball to the 16, from where, on third-and-11, Peterman threw a laser to Zay Jones in the back right corner of the end zone for a touchdown that not only stunned the stadium, but surely anyone watching on TV.
With a 13-10 lead, the defense was put on notice to make it stand up. It almost did, but the offense provided one more atrocity which handed the Texans the victory.
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