Bills escape Houston with their lives

By Rick Anderson

Bills' Travis Henry sprints around end for 23 yards to score his second touchdown of the game as Texans' Matt Stevens fails to stop him. Henry scored 2 touchdowns and ran for 159 yards. He also fumbled deep in Bills territory, which led to a Texans touchdown.

[AP Photo/George Wong]

Travis Henry was tearing up the Houston Texans defense. He had already scored a touchdown and was having his best game since the opener. With the ball deep in Bills territory, Henry tried to stretch to make more yardage on a carry. The ball came out of his hands and the Texans recovered at the Bills 8. Henry had now fumbled in 5 out of 6 games. Two had been returned for touchdowns. This fumble would lead to running James Allen's touchdown pass to Billy Miller, giving the Texans a 24-17 in the fourth quarter. Things couldn't have been more depressing for Henry, but he more than made up for it in the Bills come from behind 31-24 win over Houston.

Henry recovered a fumble by Drew Bledsoe and made a long run to put the Bills in position for the tying touchdown, which was a 23-yard Bledsoe to Moulds pass. In all, Henry had a spectacular day except for his one costly fumble. He ran for 159 yards and had two touchdowns (1 and 23 yard runs). It was his running and Bledsoe finally connecting in the second half that gave the Bills their third win of the season and put them at the .500 mark.

"The line just blocked great," Henry said. "All week we knew we had a chance to run the ball up the middle and to the outside."

Even though Henry had his best game of the season, there are a lot of critics saying that he costs the Bills too much by fumbling so much. Three fumbles in 3 games resulted in 21 points. Not good even if he were Barry Sanders. But the coaches had confidence in him and Henry was out on the very next series running the ball.

Bills offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride never twice about replacing Henry.

"No, no, no" retorted Gilbride. "That was foolish on his part (stretching for more yardage, exposing the ball). He played so hard, and he played so well, and he was trying to fight for that extra 6 inches when it's not worth it. That's when he reached the ball out and they clubbed it free. Other than that, I thought he played a terrific game in every respect."

Texans shoot themselves in the foot

The Texans had plenty of opportunities to pull off a huge upset over the Bills. They took a commanding 17-3 lead in the first half before the Bills came back and got a touchdown late in the first half.

Crucial penalties hurt the Texans, especially in the second half when they had stopped the Bills on third down and gave them new life.

Back-to-back major penalties by former Bills Jay Foreman gave the Bills a first down in the fourth quarter after the Texans had stopped the Bills on third down. Bledsoe then proceeded to direct the Bills to the tying touchdown.

"I take full responsibility,'' admitted Foreman. "I shouldn't have done that. I'm not even that kind of person or player... I don't know what happened and I don't know why. I still can't believe it. That was a selfish play. I feel real bad.''

Carr comes out gunning

The Bills were caught napping when the Texans started their first series from their own 3 yard line. The Texans first round draft choice David Carr threw a bomb to Corey Bradford, who beat safety Chris Watson and turned it into a 81-yard pass. The Bills D stiffened and force the Texans to kick a field goal.

Carr kept on picking on the favorite target of NFL quarterbacks, Watson. Carr threw a 26-yard touchdown pass to Jabar Gaffney, who deked Watson and ran for the touchdown. Carr also avoided a sack and scrambled for a 17 yard TD, the first rushing touchdown in the history of the Texans.

Carr was ripping the Bills secondary to shreds and this had all the makings of sequel to Rich Gannon's outing against Buffalo the week before. Carr completed 12 of 23 attempts for 218 yards and a touchdown. He had the Texans deep in Bills territory, but with time running down, threw incomplete on 4th down and the Bills took over.

Defense still in shambles

The Bills are on pace to allow the most points in NFL history. That is a record that Bills coach Gregg Williams would not want haunting him for the rest of his life. But if he doesn't turn this thing around, that is exactly what will be stamped on his resume when he goes looking for a new job next year. Coming to Buffalo on the premise of being a defensive genius, he has proved just the opposite. While Jerry Gray is the official defensive coordinator, it is clear that everything has to go through Williams and he is the mastermind of the "no-tackle defense."

It took almost 6 games before the Gray and Williams decided to attempt giving Watson some help in the secondary. Most coaches would have made the adjustment the first time that Watson got burned, not in game 6. The defensive schemes also seem to be too complicated for this bunch of underachievers. Time to go back to basics so at least the youngsters have a chance of understanding what is going on.

Bills Talk

The Bills face the Miami Dolphins in the Fish Tank next week and it isn't going to be a picnic. The Dolphins beat the Broncos Sunday night and they will feast on the Bills inept defense. Even Moulds has a dire forecast for that game.

"I'm not happy," declared Moulds. "If they're happy, if a lot of guys on this team are happy, then they're in it for the wrong reason. I'm not taking anything away from Houston, but we can't go to Miami next week and play this way against a good team. If we go to Miami and play like that, it'll be over by halftime.

"We wanted to come in and establish the run and get Travis some carries. It's going to be a lot tougher to do it against Miami. We'll see what this football team is made of next week."

Antoine Winfield wasn't happy with his team's performance either.

"We were supposed to come out here and dominate this team," Winfield said. "They were struggling on offense and we just kept giving them life in the first half. It was terrible."

The Bills faced some harsh words when they went into the locker room at halftime.

"The halftime atmosphere in the locker room was definitely vocal, angry and emotional," described London Fletcher.

"There was a lot of yelling, and I'm too old for it, man," Bills defensive end Chidi Ahanotu chipped in.

Williams, who talked positive in his post game interviews, defended Gray and said that he took charge in the locker room.

"Jerry (Gray) challenged them at halftime to step up and to not lose their confidence in their techniques,"said Williams. "Both coordinators did a good job of scheming in the second half."

Gilbride said that the way Houston was playing forced them to go to the run more.

"Defensively, they had surprised us with how passive they played, in the sense they were not blitzing," Gilbride described. "They were conservative in that they were doubling outside, rolling up the corner and playing a lot of two-high zone. In the first couple of drives, we were saying, "Well, eventually they're going to blitz us.' Then I realized they're committed to doing that. So I said, "Well, we're going to have to win the game running the ball.' With the exception of that turnover, we did a pretty good job."

Bledsoe, who had probably his least productive day as a Bills, gave kudos to the Texans.

"The Texans had a very good game plan for us," said Bledsoe. "They just decided, 'Hey, we're not going to let you guys beat us with your two receivers' and they did a good job of picking away some of our passes.

"That was an outstanding play by our offensive line. I stood back there all day. Our wide receivers did a great job. It's a luxury to have those two guys. We also have other weapons but those two guys are really at the top of their game right now. They hung in there for me and they played when it really counted."

Peerless Price gave the compliments right back to Bledsoe.

"We just have tremendous confidence in each other, and it all starts with Drew,"said Price. "He led us back from 17-3, and with him we knew we can win. We just have to keep believing even when we're down. As a team we have to step up and be prepared."

Even Carr had kind words for Bledsoe.

"I watched Drew a lot," Carr said. "I talked to him a couple of times during the offseason. I know he's a great football player because I grew up watching him throw the football."

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