All week, Stefon Diggs downplayed how significant it would be to face the Buffalo Bills for the first time since his big trade to Houston.
On Sunday, after the Texans won 23-20 with a last-second field goal, the star receiver admitted how important this game was to him.
“I’m not going to sit here and act like it was just regular,” he said. “It meant a lot to me, and it was reassuring that the guys around me knew that it meant a lot to me, even if I didn’t say it. I just try to keep it poised and treat every week like it’s the same…but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t mean a lot.”
C.J. Stroud threw for 331 yards and a touchdown, and Ka′imi Fairbairn’s 59-yard field goal at the last moment secured the victory for Houston.
Diggs led the Texans with six catches for 82 yards and mentioned that Sunday was an emotional day for him after spending four seasons in Buffalo.
“I was just trying to take advantage and get a win for my team, but obviously, it’s emotional,” he said. “I play with a lot of emotions.” Then he turned to the camera and whispered in a playful voice. “I’m emotional,” he said.
The Texans (4-1) were ahead 20-3 after a field goal early in the third quarter before the Bills scored 17 unanswered points to tie the game with about 3½ minutes left.
Stroud was penalized for intentional grounding, which put the Texans in a tough spot, taking them out of field-goal range with less than a minute remaining.
A punt pushed the Bills back to their 3-yard line, and after three incomplete passes, they punted, giving Houston one last chance.
“That’s on me,” said Buffalo coach Sean McDermott. “We’ve just got to do a better job. I have to do a better job in that situation.” Dare Ogunbowale made a 5-yard run to set up Fairbairn’s winning field goal.
“It wasn’t all pretty,” coach DeMeco Ryans said. “But it’s how you finish that matters, and I’m proud of the way our guys finished.”
Houston was already missing running back Joe Mixon for the fourth game in a row and struggled on offense after losing NFL receiving leader Nico Collins to a hamstring injury following a long touchdown early in the second quarter. Ryans mentioned that Collins would be listed as day to day with the injury.
Josh Allen went 9 of 30 for 131 yards and a touchdown as the Bills (3-2) lost for the second week in a row after starting the season with three straight wins. Allen had trouble before halftime again, passing for only 56 yards, a week after he threw for 42 yards in the first half against the Ravens.
“We’ve been a little bit off our game from what we executed in the first three games,” McDermott said. Dawuane Smoot’s strip-sack of Stroud gave the Bills the ball at the Houston 15 with 4½ minutes left.
They started the next drive with Mitchell Trubisky at quarterback while Allen was in the medical tent after hitting his head hard on the turf a few plays earlier. He came back on the second down but threw two incomplete passes.
The Bills tied the game with a 33-yard field goal. The Texans were moving the ball with about eight minutes remaining when Terrel Bernard intercepted a pass meant for Diggs, giving Buffalo possession at its own 20.
The Bills struggled to move the ball and had to punt, but they quickly got it back after the strip sack.
They narrowed the score to 10 when James Cook ran for a 5-yard touchdown with about nine minutes left in the third quarter.
Rookie Keon Coleman made a 49-yard catch on fourth-and-5, bringing the Bills within 20-17 on their next drive. Coleman avoided a tackle and then raced down the sideline, flipping into the end zone for his second touchdown of the season.
This touchdown pass was the 231st of Allen’s career, tying him with Patrick Mahomes for the most touchdowns by a player in his first seven seasons.
The Texans took a 7-3 lead when Cam Akers ran 15 yards for a touchdown with about three minutes remaining in the first quarter. Ogunbowale made a 38-yard catch-and-run on third-and-5 to keep that drive alive.
Collins scored a 67-yard touchdown on the first play of Houston’s next drive, extending the lead to 14-3.
Fairbairn kicked a 50-yard field goal as time expired in the second quarter, and his 47-yarder early in the third made the score 20-3.
