Houston 31, Buffalo 10
Bills' offense remains miserable in loss to Texans
Buffalo picks up only nine first downs
Here's a suggestion for the Buffalo Bills organization.
On those rare occasions when the Bills actually score, the team should put the words to the "Shout" song on the scoreboard, for all the fans to follow.
It happens so infrequently, who can remember how the song goes anymore?
The Bills' offense reached one of its lowest points in franchise history in the wake of Sunday's 31-10 loss to the Houston Texans.
If you weren't one of the 69,790 at Ralph Wilson Stadium on Sunday, you didn't miss a thing. The game was identical to the loss to New Orleans five weeks ago. It was all-too-similar to the home losses to Cleveland, New England, San Francisco and Miami in the past 12 months.
The Bills' offense managed nine first downs for the second straight game, the first time since 1971 it has gone back-to-back games with single-digit first downs.
The Bills are 1-8 in their last nine home games. In their last six home losses combined they have one — one — offensive touchdown.
"Terrible," said defensive end Chris Kelsay of the team's home-field performance. "It's embarrassing. It's easy to understand why our fans are upset and demanding change and everything you hear about. You can't really argue with them."
The Bills continue to be haunted by the disastrous decisions made before the season even started. They have been well-documented: The decision to trade Jason Peters, to make Langston Walker the left tackle, to run a no-huddle offense exclusively, to simplify the attack in order to run a fast no-huddle, the firing of the offensive coordinator, the release of Walker.
"I think the whole thing falls on me," coach Dick Jauron said. "I don't think there's any doubt. I take full responsibility for it."
"It was easy," Texans linebacker DeMeco Ryans said. "They kind of had the same formations. They didn't give us a lot of motions and things. So it was a simple offense to go against."
Aside from a 29-yard touchdown run by Terrell Owens on an end around in the first quarter, the Bills' offense did nothing against the Texans.
Quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick passed for 117 yards, and 54 of those came on the final drive at the end of the game.
Marshawn Lynch rushed for 43 yards. Fred Jackson ran for 28.
Owens caught five passes for 39 yards, and Lee Evans had two for 29.
The Bills' offense has gone six straight games with 160 or fewer net passing yards, the team's longest streak since 1997.
With just 204 total yards, it was the sixth straight game of fewer than 300 yards, tied for the fourth longest streak in team history.
The time of possession of 20:52 was the Bills' worst in four years.
The futility negated the fact the Bills' defense held the NFL's No. 3 passing team in check for three full quarters.
Houston scored three touchdowns in the final 15 minutes to erase a 10-9 deficit and turn the game into a rout.
"Honestly, the defense has been playing their butts off the last four or five weeks and offensively we haven't been doing anything to help them out," Owens said.
"They can only hold so much," receiver Josh Reed said of the Buffalo defense. "You've got to be able to do your part on offense, too. We're just leaving plays out there. We've got too many playmakers on that side of the ball for this."
Mark Gaughan's postgame analysis
The offensive tackle position continues to paralyze the attack.
While the Texans (5-3) have a quality roster, they were not dominating on defense before Sunday. Houston entered the game ranked 21st in yards allowed. The Texans ranked tied for 29th in sacks per pass attempt. They looked vulnerable down the deep middle, since their safeties are not stellar.
Yet the Bills (3-5) could not protect the passer long enough to threaten the deep middle.
Right tackle Jamon Meredith went down with a sprained knee early in the game and was replaced by Kirk Chambers. When the Texans decided to blitz, Fitzpatrick was forced to dump off quickly.
"We're playing with a lot of new guys on the offensive line," Owens said. "It's hard to get into a rhythm or develop any kind of chemistry when those guys aren't the guys that started through training camp.
"Every week we've played with an injury or two on both sides of the ball. You saw today when Jamon Meredith went down. He was doing a good job up to this point, so we're playing musical chairs with a lot of guys in the line."
The Bills went 2 of 10 on third-down conversions.
Even though the Buffalo defense came up with three turnovers in the first quarter, the offense could turn them into only seven points.
Rookie safety Jairus Byrd got two of the takeaways, intercepting his sixth and seventh passes of the season. The first one stopped the Texans' first drive at the Buffalo 13. The second set up Owens' TD run.
The other takeaway was by linebacker Paul Posluszny, who stripped the ball out of the hands of Texans back Steve Slaton. The Bills recovered at their own 42.
But three plays later — on a third-and-3 situation — the Texans sent a seven-man rush at Fitzpatrick and sacked him for an 8-yard loss.
The Bills' offense did introduce some presnap motion on a handful of plays. But Evans remains stuck at the split end position almost exclusively. Rarely do the Bills do anything creative to get him the ball.
"We had plays that worked against New England [in Week One] that aren't getting yards anymore," Fitzpatrick said. "We're not getting the protection, and whatever it is we have to use the bye week to figure it out."
Just like so many other teams this season, the Texans wore down the Bills' defense. Houston finished with 439 yards. The Bills' defense allowed 425 to Carolina and 414 to the Jets the previous two weeks.
It's the second time in the last three years the defense has allowed 400-plus yards in three straight games.
Running back Ryan Moats gained 126 yards, 77 in the last 20 minutes of the game. Quarterback Matt Schaub hit 25 of 34 passes for 268 yards.
"It's tough when you leave them out there on the field so long," center Geoff Hangartner said. "We made it hard on them."
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