No one deserved to win the Bills-Texans playoff game
By Allison Cary
The Buffalo Bills and the Houston Texans were the first game of the 2019 NFL Playoffs. By the end, neither team deserved to win.
After nearly 75 excruciating minutes of football, the Houston Texans finally won on Saturday. But it was painful. And by the end, no one deserved to win.
Some people will call the Saturday meeting between the Buffalo Bills and Texans an instant classic. But let’s not confuse entertainment with quality football. After taking a 16-0 lead late in the third quarter, the Bills allowed the Texans to mount a comeback, scoring 19 points in the third and fourth quarters. The Bills hit a late field goal to force overtime, where after another painful battle, the Texans came out victorious.
Josh Allen and Deshaun Waston had very, very different evenings. While Allen was great in the first half, Watson and his offense struggled to get anything going. But in the second half, Watson was running the show and Allen was falling apart. The second-year quarterback out of Wyoming did enough to keep his team alive, but also had some spectacularly bad moments, including a backwards pass in the final moments of the game that nearly resulted in a critical turnover.
Watson was 20-of-25 on the night for 247 yards and a touchdown. But more importantly, he came up huge in big moments. The best example was the final drive in overtime, where Watson evaded a sack by two Buffalo defenders before hitting a pass that set up the game-winning score.
But for the spectacular moments that Watson brought us, there were equally horrific moments from the Texans defense. At times, Houston seemed intent on giving up this game. It outplayed the Bills in the second half for sure, but still allowed the struggling team to come back for the game-tying field goal.
Neither team deserved to win this game, yet the Texans did. And whether they are facing the Kansas City Chiefs or the Baltimore Ravens in the Divisional Round, it’s difficult to see how Houston carves a route to the AFC Championship. There were so many moments tonight that were just… bad.
The Chiefs and the Ravens won’t be so forgiving.