Bills Finish First Half of Season by Playing for 30 Minutes

Rick Stewart/Getty Images

Coming into the Week Eight contest, we laid out the keys for the Buffalo Bills match up against the Houston Texans. We were hoping that some of the injured starters could return to play; namely Jonathan Scott, Bryan Scott, or Donte Whitner. None of the three did.

The Bills hardest job was to slow down one of the best passing attacks in the NFL led by QB Matt Schaub. The Bills would have to focus on containing the big three targets that Schaub has been clicking with, specifically:

1) Top WR Andre Johnson

2) Top TE Owen Daniels

3) RB Steve Slaton

The Bills defense would have to find a way to continue to create turnovers to give their struggling offense a short field to work with, if they were to win. In addition, the Bills offense would have to stay on the field longer, be less predictable in their play calling, and generate more yards on first and second downs.

On a national level, nobody, but nobody was talking about Ryan Moats, or the other receivers on the Texans team outside of the big three weapons, or how dominant the Texans' defense could be.

In a sport that is often referred to as a copycat league, is it any wonder that there are copycat writers covering it?

So, how well did the Bills do in their key assignments? 

1) Andre Johnson: Caught six passes for 63 yards. Longest catch was for seventeen yards. No touchdowns. Check mark to the Bills

2) Owen Daniels: One catch for twenty-two yards. Left with a sprained knee in the first quarter not to return. Check mark to the Bills

3) Steve Slaton: One rush for one yard. One pass catch for seven yards and a fumble. At least some things you can count on.

Steve Slaton is a fumbling highlight reel in the making if there ever was one, and he coughed the ball up on one of the only two times he touched it.

Slaton never returned to the game as Head Coach Gary Kubiak probably figured he couldn't rely, or trust him. Smart move coach. Again, check mark to the Bills, or is that a check mark we should award to Houston? 

The Bills created turnovers three of the first four times that Houston had the ball. Rookie extraordinaire safety Jairus Byrd continued his amazing streak by collecting two more interceptions in the first quarter.

Byrd made a believer of Schaub early on. The press clippings were true, this kid is a bonafide ball hawk.

Paul Posluszny punched the ball out of Slaton's hand, and Marcus Stroud recovered the fumble. Three turnovers created—another check mark for the Bills.

Due to the turnovers, the Bills were able to capitalize on the shorter field once in the form of a Terrell Owens end-around reverse from twenty-nine yards out that gave the Bills a much needed touchdown. Lee Evans threw a great block to help spring T.O. along the sidelines.

With the Bills up 7-0, Houston started to realize that you can move the ball pretty consistently against the Bills defense if you just keep it on the ground. It dawned on them that it is much harder for Jairus Byrd to intercept a handoff.

So, for the rest of the half, Houston acted like a MMA fighter with a ground and pound attack. They dominated the time of possession, ran off a bunch of plays that winded the Bills depleted defense, and whittled away at the lead with field goals. The Bills lead was now down to 7-6 with 2:20 left in the half.

The Bills Fred Jackson returns the kick off seventy one yards, taking it down to the Houston 34. The kick off return was greatly aided by faking a reverse to Justin Jenkins, as the fake seemed to freeze several Texans right in their tracks, and Freddy just sprinted right past them.

The Bills managed to drive the ball down to the Texans' five yard line, and on third down Fitzpatrick had an open Terrell Owens in the far corner of the end zone. His pass had too much loft, and the extra time allowed Jacques Reeves to recover, and made a great play by stripping Terrell Owens away from a sure touchdown catch.

The Bills settled for a short field goal and a halftime lead of 10-6.

Had Fitzpatrick thrown the pass with more zip it seemed like a pretty simple touchdown for the taking. Had the Bills gone up 14-6, might that have fired them up, or did they suffer a mental letdown by settling for the field goal? We will never know.

The Bills had completed their first half goals to a satisfactory level. The defense had done their usual job of bend but don't break, and had created three turnovers.

They had prevented the high powered Texans' offense from scoring a first half touchdown. Based on all of the objectives and goals we laid out, I would say the Bills won the first half of the game.

You're currently logged into Facebook

Do you want to share your Bleacher Report activity on Facebook?