The Buffalo Bills (7-4) nearly rallied to defeat the Houston Texans (6-5) on a last-minute drive. However on 4th and 6 from the Texans 22 yard line, Josh Allen was intercepted with :18 seconds remaining.
The Bills will regroup before heading to Pittsburgh next weekend.
Here's what we learned from the Bills' loss vs. Houston:
1 — An offense under siege
Outside of a handful of plays, including a 45-yard TD run by James Cook III and a wild 4th & 27 conversion via a hook and ladder, Thursday night was by and large a slog for the Buffalo Bills offense. The Texans came into Week 12 with the league's top scoring defense (16.3 points per game) and second in yards per play (4.6).
QB Josh Allen was constantly greeted with a sea of red in his face, getting sacked a career-high eight times and turning it over twice. Thursday marked Allen's third multi-interception game — he had just one 2+ INT game in 2024 and it took until Week 18 of 2023 for him to reach that mark.
"Have to watch it on film, feel like they were doing a few different stunts," Allen said. "They had a good plan, and we gotta play better."
According to PFF, the Texans registered 28 pressures against the Bills as the pass rush came from all areas across the offensive line, hitting Allen a total of 12 times. When Houston didn't directly land a hit on Allen, they more often than not still affected the rhythm of the play.
Allen shouldered the blame for a few of those sacks, particularly when he tried to scramble and extend plays.
"It's not fun. I ran into a couple (sacks) myself. I got to be better throwing the ball away and living to see another down," Allen shared. "Too many times I was going backwards."
The Bills appeared to find a successful formula early in the game when they scored on their opening possession. Coming into Thursday, the Bills were tied with the Lions for the most opening drive points (45) and TDs (6) this season. Buffalo surpassed Detroit on Cook's 45-yard touchdown run, marking the first time since Week 9 it had scored on the first series.
After the opening drive, Cook managed just one run longer than 15 yards.
With Houston keying in on Cook, the Bills passing attack struggled to sustain drives as the Texans pass rush did damage. Allen's -0.30 EPA (expected points added) per dropback was his third-worst in a game since the start of the 2022 season.
"They had 12 hits on Josh, eight sacks. It's not a healthy formula, right there," McDermott said.
"When you're not winning first down and you get into second down and long, that's what becomes predictable. And then their D line pins their ears back, and they go."
Allen finished the game 24 of 34 passing, his seventh game this season with a completion percentage over 70% — two more than all of 2024 — but his fourth game with one or fewer touchdown passes.
2 — Two long scoring drives dirty up Bills defensive performance
Buffalo came into Week 12 surrendering an average of 22.9 points per game, tied with San Francisco for 15th in the NFL. The Bills were much more in line with their season average Thursday than the last two weeks where they gave up 30 and 32 points, respectively.
Still, a stretch of 17 points allowed on three consecutive drives in the second quarter overshadowed an otherwise solid performance. Buffalo led 9-3 at 9:35 left until half when Houston went on a 12-play, 77-yard drive chewing up 5:48 of clock to take a 10-9 lead.
On the first offensive play after the TD, Allen was picked off on a pass to WR Elijah Moore. The Texans defense, playing in zone coverage, was well positioned and Calen Bullock was there to intercept the pass off a deflection. Bullock ran the ball back for a pick-six but it was called back due to an illegal block.
Buffalo's defense buckled down to only allow a field goal, keeping it a one possession game at 13-9. The Bills regained momentum immediately with a 97-yard kickoff return TD by RB Ray Davis on his 26th birthday. Buffalo led 16-13 with 1:43 until half time and would receive the second half kick.
That momentum was short lived, however, as Houston needed just six plays to go 75 yards and get into the end zone. The Texans went into the locker room up 20-16. Buffalo would end up punting on the first drive in the third quarter.
"The drive before half, the big play, the chunk right there, we got to be better. That was an important drive right there,' McDermott said.
Outside of the two long drives, the Bills held the Texans to 100 net yards of offense across nine drives and held Houston to three points and forced four punts in the second half.
"Thought the effort in the second half by the defense was outstanding. Gave us a chance to win," McDermott said.
3 — Cook & Shakir were Buffalo's go-to players vs. Texans
When the Bills needed an answer on offense, they often dialed up plays to James Cook and wide receiver Khalil Shakir. Both players were critical on Buffalo's final drive, recording a combined 50 yards on four touches.
Shakir, who missed the whole week of practice while attending the birth of his first child, had season-highs in catches (8) and receiving yards (110). It was his first 100+ yard receiving game since Dec. 8, 2024 against the Los Angeles Rams.
77 of those yards came via a 44-yard run after the catch on an orbit motion play out of the backfield and the other 33 occurred on a wild hook and ladder 4th and 27 conversion to extend the final offensive drive.
Shakir ran across from the left side of the formation as Allen threw to his right to WR Joshua Palmer. Palmer lateralled the ball back to Shakir as he ran across the field in stride and raced up the sideline to get to the Texans 26-yard line.
It was the first time since 2020 that an NFL team converted a 4th and 27 or longer with under two minutes to go.
"Yeah, he's a heck of a football player. Big part of our team made some big plays for us as well," McDermott said of the receiver.
What would have been one of the most memorable plays of the season had Buffalo found a way to win, is unfortunately now a footnote in the team's fourth loss of the season.
Cook surpassed 1,000 rushing yards for the third consecutive time with his 116-yard performance on 17 carries. On his 45-yard run in the first quarter, Cook reached a top speed of 21.33 mph on his 45-yard TD run, his fastest play of the season and 2nd-fastest of his career.
Cook now leads the NFL with six games of over 100 yards rushing.
