The Buffalo Bills travel to Houston this Sunday to take on the Texans, and this week’s Throwback Thursday feature is from a game played between these 2 teams just a few years ago, on January 4, 2020. It was an AFC Wild Card game set at Houston’s NRG Stadium, with the Texans being AFC South champions, while Buffalo qualified for the playoffs with a second place finish in the AFC East. Buffalo used some trickery to open the scoring in the first quarter, as offensive coordinator Brian Daboll dialed up a play that saw wide receiver John Brown hit quarterback Josh Allen with a throwback pass that resulted in a 16 yard touchdown.
Josh Allen scores on trick play option pass
The Bills’ defense put the locks on the Texans for the entire first half, holding them scoreless. Meanwhile Steven Hauschka contributed a pair of 40 yard field goals to give his club a 13-0 halftime lead. When Hauschka hit his third consecutive three-pointer in the third quarter, it upped the Bills’ lead to 16-0 and set up a play on the ensuing kickoff that changed the momentum of the game. The kickoff went into the end zone and was fielded by Houston’s DeAndre Carter, who then flipped the ball at the feet of an official. The ref never blew his whistle, and the Bills alertly rushed in and recovered the ball for an apparent touchdown, since the returner never really downed the ball by taking a knee. It would have given Buffalo pretty much an insurmountable lead, but then the inexplicable happened. A mysterious black-clad “common sense” alternate official came in from the sideline and overruled the refs on the field, negating the score by ruling that the Texans’ player’s “intention” was to down the ball when he flipped it in the vicinity of the official standing next to him. These extra refs, only used during the playoffs to keep the guys who didn’t earn playoff games because of poor performance during the regular season employed, somehow were given the authority over the actual game officials.
Being let off the hook must have given the Texans a jolt of energy, because they stormed back to score 19 unanswered points to go ahead 19-16 in the fourth quarter. Quarterback DeShaun Watson ran 20 yards for a score and then added a 2 point conversion run, Kai Fairbairn kicked a field goal and Watson hit Carlos Hyde with a short scoring pass, and added another 2 point conversion with a toss to DeAndre Hopkins. Buffalo battled back to tie the game with another Hauschka field goal, sending the contest into overtime. They were burned in the extra period by an old friend and former teammate, Taiwan Jones, who grabbed a short Watson pass and rambled 34 yards to set up a winning 28 yard field goal by Fairbairn, giving the Texans a 22-19 win.
Mysterious “alternate” ref affecting the game’s outcome