Texans Defeat Bills 22-19 in Overtime Wild Card Victory

For fans of exciting football games, come-from-behind narratives and the Houston Texans in general, there was plenty to celebrate on Saturday evening. For members of the Bills Mafia, there was the heartbreak of losing a close game. In the AFC Wild Card game, the Texans defeated the Bills 22-19 in overtime, with a 28-yard field goal from Ka’imi Fairbairn winning the game with just over 3 minutes left to play.

Buffalo was in the lead for the first half by an imposing (but not insurmountable) margin of 16-0. In the game’s 3rd quarter, Houston rallied and scored 19 unanswered points.

The Bills weren’t done yet, though. With 5 seconds left to play, Buffalo kicker Stephen Hauschka kicked a 47-yard field goal, sending the game into overtime, where Houston ultimately proved victorious.

Houston quarterback Deshaun Watson had a tremendous game, running for a touchdown in the 3rd quarter and passing for another in the 4th.

The 2019 AFC Wild Card between the #Bills and #Texans is the first playoff game in the Super Bowl era with both a rushing TD and a receiving TD scored by a QB.@DeshaunWatson | @JoshAllenQB

— NFL Research (@NFLResearch) January 5, 2020

A controversial play at the start of the game’s 2nd half may also haunt the dreams of Bills fans for a while to come. Mark Maske of The Washington Post reports that Houston’s DeAndre Carter caught the ball in the end zone, then tossed it towards an official. The Bills recovered it and ran for a touchdown — at least, that was the initial ruling. Maske writes that “the officials conferred and ruled that Carter had given himself up and the play was a touchback. The NFL said the touchback ruling was correct.”

officially a touchback for the Texans, but man oh man was it close to a Bills touchdown pic.twitter.com/RG3OsyJZ3Q

— Christian D'Andrea (@TrainIsland) January 4, 2020