Bills’ last loss to Texans had lasting impact on Josh Allen
The Buffalo Bills have faced the Houston Texans 10 times in their history, holding a 6-4 winning record against them.
Of all those, it was the last time that these two faced off that might’ve had the longest-lasting impact on the Bills as a franchise.
That contest was an overtime loss to the Texans in the 2019 Wild Card at NRG Stadium. The final score was 22-19 and it was the first taste of the playoffs Buffalo had during the Josh Allen era.
But as is so often in sports, you learn the most from losses. That’s exactly what happened with the quarterback on that day and this week he explained exactly why that was the case.
“No one likes losing, no one likes losing in the playoffs, especially with the lead we had going into that second half. It wasn’t a fun ride home and it was a long offseason,” Allen said via video conference. “That one, since it was so long in between games, really drove me.”
That postseason loss might’ve been the last time anyone had questions about Allen’s game. He went on to play at a MVP level last season and he’s fresh off an AFC Offensive Player of the Week Award this week.
However, this Texans loss didn’t cause Allen to change anything in his game. Rather, it was a shift in his mindset during the regular season, as the QB said winning then was much more important than he realized.
“Doing whatever we can to get home games in the playoffs,” Allen said. “Even looking back at this last season, having those two games at home and then going on the road, into a hostile environment, it’s no small task.”
Adding to the impact of that loss was Buffalo head coach Sean McDermott. He bunched Allen in this group, but he said that such a defeat helped bring the Bills locker room together.
“We have a lot of guys that were there then and are here now that have become our core. I think that had a great impact on those guys,” McDermott said via video conference. “You learn a lot of lessons from every season, that game in particular, where we didn’t get the result we were looking for that we wanted. I think it hit a lot of our younger players, in particular, when they got a taste what it was about and how much they wanted to take that next step.”
Hindsight is 20-20, but that loss has benefited them much better in the long-term than it has for the Texans.
