5 takeaways from the Bills’ 22-19 OT Wild-Card loss to the Texans

Five takeaways from the Buffalo Bills’ Wild-Card loss to the Houston Texans.

The Buffalo Bills’ visit to the playoffs ended the same way as their last time two seasons ago, defeat.

Both games were close, but this one, an overtime loss, came in heartbreaking fashion for the Bills after Buffalo held a 16-0 lead over the Houston Texans after the first half of play.

With that, here are five takeaways from the Bills’ 22-19 loss to the Texans:

Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen. (AP Photo/Michael Wyke)

An ugly end

Bills quarterback Josh Allen had some good moments in this one. He completed deep passes, and made players miss with his legs while picking up chunks of yards. What ensued at the end of the Bills’ loss was nothing short of embarrassing and should’ve put him into perspective of what he is: a young quarterback.

Allen and the Bills’ offense drove into field goal range down three, took terrible penalties via intentional grounding and sacks to take the Bills out of field goal range. To the offense’s credit, the Bills got back into it and tied the game with an excellent rally and kick from Stephen Hauschka. In overtime, the Bills did little right.

To the defense’s credit, the Bills stopped the Texans’ opening drive. The Bills offense then couldn’t get things going much at all, and when they did, Cody Ford took a questionable penalty, but it was a rookie play on a block that didn’t need to happen. On defense, Houston quarterback Deshaun Watson broke a sack from Matt Milano and Siran Neal and dumped it off for a deep gain, setting up a chip-shot game-winning kick for the Texans. The Bills looked like a team in a playoff pinch for the first time.