Thursday Night Observations

Good game

I didn’t have much stake in the contest — I did have Woody Marks going everywhere, and while the role was good, the production was not — but I also have no Josh Allen, and no Nico Collins, so I enjoyed it. The Texans defense, with the exception of a couple plays by James Cook and an amazing, but ultimately moot 4th-and-27 conversion, dominated. They were everywhere — in fact I’ve never seen Allen this bottled up and unable to escape.

• Allen took eight sacks, threw two picks and had neither a rushing nor a receiving TD. Talk about week to week regression, this had to be the most severe example of all time. I thought the Bills should have called more designed runs for him because once he dropped back they were on him.

• James Cook had a good game, notably his 45-yard TD run. He even caught three passes and looked fast in space.

• With Keon Coleman and Dalton Kincaid out. Khalil Shakir was the clear No. 1 with 10 targets, eight catches and 110 yards. He was also part of the insane conversion on the final drive.

• Davis Mills is proving to be a capable caretaker a la Trent Dilfer on this defense-oriented team. The problem for them is they don’t run block especially well and have no identity on offense. It’ll be interesting to see what the Texans do next week if CJ Stroud is available.

• Marks ran well, fought for extra yards, but got stuffed on the goal line and was pulled for Nick Chubb there a couple times. But Marks is the clear lead back even if Mills doesn’t seem to like to check down to him much.

• Jayden Higgins was Mills’ favorite target (9) but the production was modest aside from a short TD. Christian Kirk had six targets, Collins only three. But Collins had been productive with Mills, so I wouldn’t read too much into that. Higgins has gotten 23 targets over his last three games which isn’t surprising as rookies often gain trust in the second half of the year.

• It’s amazing the Bills were even in position to win the game on the final drive given the sack (8 to 0) and turnover (2 to 0) disparity. Plus the Bills turned the ball over on downs. Part of it was due to the kick return TD by Ray Davis which was lucky for me since I started the Bills defense in a league.

• The Texans defense give them a puncher’s chance against anyone though, especially if they can improve their running game between now and the end of the year.