This was a painful game to watch for Bills fans. There’s no other way to say it. Instead of keeping their chances to win the AFC East alive, that dream is now long gone assuming that New England doesn’t completely fall apart from here on out. As for the playoff push, now the hope is that the Bills just even make the playoffs.
Buffalo drops to 7-4 on the season and were heavily humbled by the Texans, losing 23-19 in a close battle that didn’t feel close at times. Buffalo will not get a little bit of extra time to prepare for their Week 13 matchup against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
While there were some positive takeaways from this game, a lot of fans are only going to be focused on what went wrong, and who played a role in this heartbreaking loss.
Winners:
RB Ray Davis
On his birthday, Ray Davis took a kickoff return 97 yards for a touchdown to give the Bills a 16-13 lead in the second quarter. This is now the second week where Davis has shined on special teams and it brought life to the Bills when they needed it the most.
RB James Cook
Cook was the only offensive player that wasn’t a big disappointment for the Bills. He rushed for 116 yards, which included a 45-yard touchdown run on Buffalo’s first drive. He averaged just under 7 yards per carry and his performance should show the Bills why they need to prioritize the rushing attack from here on out.
DT Larry Ogunjobi
There were a couple of times where Larry Ogunjobi managed to have some nice run stops behind the line of scrimmage. Since his debut from his suspension, he has been solid as a rotational player upfront for this defense that has been terrible against the run.
Losers:
OL Spencer Brown
It was a rough night for Spencer Brown, to say the least. While he did suffer a shoulder injury, he was giving up pass rush opportunities to Will Anderson Jr. for most of the night. Eventually, he was pulled late in the game because he was a liability at one point.
WR Elijah Moore
It’s been nothing but bad production from Elijah Moore since the season started. This game was no different. He was targeted 3 times, but had just 1 catch for -3 (yes, that’s right), -3 yards. He is part of big problem that the Bills have at wide receiver and it’s tough to imagine that they will clean it up anytime soon.
DE Joey Bosa
It seems like Bosa has cooled off from his strong start with the Bills, but now is not the time for that. Aside from one quarterback hit and very few pass rushes, Bosa had an extremely quiet night. With Buffalo's defense already being one of the worst, the last thing that they need is to have Bosa not make any kind of impact.
QB Josh Allen
It was 50/50 with putting Allen on this list, but he does deserve a bit of the blame. There were times he held onto the ball for too long and tried to make plays that should’ve just been throwaways to keep the drives alive. Not to mention, his two costly interceptions certainly play a role in a reason why the Bills are 7-4 rather than 8-3.