The Houston Texans fell just short as they fell to the Buffalo Bills in an insane finish by a score of 36-31.
On Sunday afternoon, the Houston Texans took on the Buffalo Bills to begin the 2026 season, which resulted in the Bills picking up the win.
The game was very entertaining, and while this was a Week 1 game, it is very possible that the Bills could have had the advantage in the standings after the season, as they now have the tiebreaker over the Texans.
With that said, let's take a look at what happened in this game and see why Buffalo was able to come out on top over Houston.
In the first quarter, the Bills took advantage of a C.J. Stroud fumble and made a field goal to go up 3-0.
The very next drive, Stroud and the Texans responded as they drove down the field and had running back David Montgomery punch it in on third-and-goal from one yard out to give Houston a 7-3 lead.
Then, in the second quarter, the scoring sped up quite a bit as Buffalo drove down the field very quickly and took the lead back 10-7 as Josh Allen ran into the end zone on a 21-yard rush.
Houston then responded right back on another solid drive, which ended in another touchdown from Montgomery as he ran into the end zone on an 18-yard run to go up 14-10.
Following the Texans' response, Allen and the Bills took advantage of a 46-yard pass interference penalty, which put Buffalo on the one-yard line and allowed Allen to sneak it in and put the Bills back up 17-14.
After that, Houston was unable to respond, and then punted the ball back to Buffalo which gave Allen the opportunity to lead another scoring drive as he threw a 43-yard touchdown pass to DJ Moore which extended the Bills' lead to 24-14.
The Texans were then able to respond as Stroud and the offense benefitted from a few defensive penalties and put the ball in the endzone as Stroud threw a 12-yard touchdown pass to Nico Collins to cut the lead to 24-21.
Following that drive, the Bills let it go to halftime, which then gave both teams an opportunity to make adjustments at the half.
In the third quarter, there were punts by both teams but on the final drive in the third quarter, Allen was able to extend Buffalo's lead to 27-21 as he led the Bills on a field goal drive.
The Texans were able to bounce back as Stroud threw a seven yard touchdown pass to put Houston back in the lead 28-27.
On the next drive, Buffalo added a field goal to regain the lead 30-28, while Houston responded again with a field goal to take the lead right back 31-30.
Then, each team punted, but after that Allen marched the Bills down to take the lead late as he threw a 34-yard touchdown pass to Jordan Palmer that put Buffalo back up 36-31. Following the touchdown, the Bills did go for two, but were unable to convert so the lead stayed at five points.
On the Texans final drive they got all the way down to the red zone, but came up empty as Stroud was sacked on third down and fumbled and the Bills recovered which ended the game as Allen took a knee for Buffalo to wind out the clock.
With the result of this game now final, the Texans move to 0-1 and while the Bills go to 1-0 in the head coaching debut of Joe Brady.
Heading into Week 2, the Texans will be hoping they can bounce back against the Cincinnati Bengals to avoid a 0-2 start.
