HOUSTON - What happened in the final moments Sunday afternoon when the Buffalo Bills completely mismanaged their way into a 23-20 walk-off loss at the hands of the Houston Texans pales in comparison to the 13 seconds playoff debacle.

I know people wanted to immediately jump to make that comparison, but come on. That was a 2021 playoff game and that bit of clock murder ended their season and quite possibly cost the Bills their best chance to play in a Super Bowl, while this galling defeat came in Week 5 of the 2024 season, one in which the Bills are still sitting in first place - precarious as that feels - in the AFC East.

But make no mistake, it was inexcusable that after dramatically rallying from a 20-3 third-quarter deficit to tie the score, the Bills failed to get this game to overtime rather than watching Ka’imi Fairbairn kick a game-winning 59-yard field goal.

“That’s on me,” coach Sean McDermott said. “The end of game situation on offense, tough situations. They were holding three timeouts, got a good field goal kicker. We needed to run the clock and move the chains and that’s on me. We didn’t do that there and that’s my fault.”

As the head coach, yes, he should have intervened when offensive coordinator Joe Brady called three straight pass plays. But let’s back up a second here. Why was Brady calling three straight pass plays in the first place?

I know it would have been just as tough to grind out a first down on the ground, but given how the offense had played, passing clearly should have been the second option because the Bills actually ran the ball pretty well. Why not hand off to James Cook, then maybe call a designed run for Allen who typically succeeds in that area?

It just made no sense and that’s two weeks in a row where Brady has failed in a critical spot. Last week, he took full blame for the disastrous trick play which helped sink the Bills in their loss at Baltimore. Now we have this ill-timed set of decisions, and I would argue this was far more problematic than the trick play because this led directly to defeat.

“I’m not going to get into that, that’s not relevant right now,” McDermott said when I specifically asked him to explain the rationale of what Brady did. “Overall, that’s on me so we just got to do a better job, I got to do a better job in that situation.”

We have known since Week 1, regardless of the 3-0 start, that this Bills’ team is simply not as talented as any of the last four, all of which won division titles. They lost several key veterans, they have lots of youth up and down the roster, and because of their many defensive injuries, too many of those players are being relied on right now.

Thus, the coaching staff has to be at its very best in order for the Bills to beat good teams like Baltimore and Houston and it hasn’t been up to the task in either of the losses.

Here are my other observations:

The key reasons why the Bills lost

▶ The wide receivers were incompetent: It seems highly unlikely because of their challenging salary cap situation that the Bills can swing a trade for Davante Adams, and the fact that they just moved on from a 30-year-old-plus, highly-paid receiver in Stefon Diggs. But Brandon Beane has to at least make the call and do a deep exploration of what it would take to get him in a Bills uniform because right now, they are not nearly good enough at the wide receiver position.

Five games is no longer a small sample size. That’s nearly one-third of the season and the Bills have essentially gotten nothing out of their underwhelming free agent signings Curtis Samuel, Marquez Valdes-Scantling and Mack Hollins. I won’t include Keon Coleman, at least not yet, because he’s a rookie, and hey, he made the only big play of any of these guys Sunday with his catch-and-run 49-yard touchdown.

“Well, it starts with making better decisions on my part and I know I didn’t complete the ball at a high rate tonight, put the ball in harm’s way, especially early in that first half, but I trust our guys,” Allen said.

Of course Allen’s going to say that and yes, he was part of the problem. He made some poor decisions and he was not accurate, but he was also under duress far too much, and his receivers can’t get open. He threw 18 passes at his wide receivers and only four were caught.

Allen is not used to this. For the previous four years, he could drop back to pass knowing someone was going to get open, more times than not it was Diggs, and then he delivered the ball and they caught it. This season, there are a crazy amount of plays where he has nowhere to go with the ball and it all came to a head as he completed just 9 of 30 passes for 131 yards.

You have to go back to 1992 to find a QB who threw at least 30 passes and completed nine or fewer in an NFL game. That set of parameters has happened only 12 times since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger. Yeah, it was bad.

“I know you guys are going to be wild this week but I love my guys and we’re going to keep working and this isn’t a defining moment in our season,” Allen said. “It’s a chance to learn and grow from this and that’s what we’regoing to do.”

Khalil Shakir is a nice player, but not having him available should not have decimated the offense the way it did. I don’t know who else will be on the trade market at the deadline next month besides Adams, but the Bills are desperate for help and Beane needs to make a move.

▶ Settling for the tying field goal was a killer: After all their struggles, the Bills had a chance to take the lead in the fourth quarter after Dawuane Smoot forced a CJ Stroud fumble and Dorian Williams recovered at the Texans 15 with 4:21 remaining. Down 20-17, a touchdown there would have meant the Texans needed a touchdown to win.

But on first down, with Mitch Trubisky at quarterback while Josh Allen was getting checked for a concussion, James Cook got blown up for no gain. Allen came back in and threw two incomplete passes and the Bills could only get Tyler Bass’ field goal and that left the door open for the Texans to win, and they took advantage.

▶ The defensive injuries are too much to overcome: The Bills played this game with four rookie defensive linemen in the rotation, a rookie safety, and two backup level players at linebacker and nickel corner.

If Houston’s star receiver Nico Collins hadn’t gotten hurt on his 67-yard TD pass, this game might not have been as close as it was.

Not having nickel corner Taron Johnson is really showing in the last two weeks, and when you add in the absences of Taylor Rapp, Ed Oliver and Von Miller in this game, it’s a wonder the Bills held the Texans to just six points in the second half.

Plays that proved critical

▶ The trouble started early for the Bills on offense. They drove to a first-and-goal at the 9 but Allen suffered a sack which resulted in them settling for Bass’ first field goal and just a 3-0 lead.

▶ On Houston’s ensuing possession, the Bills’ struggles on third down began. They had the Texans in a third-and-5 at their own 35 but allowed running back Dare Ogunbowale to get wide open for a quick flare pass and he took it 28 yards. Three plays later the Texans were in the end zone on Cam Akers’ 15-yard run. Houston went 8-for-16 on third down.

▶ The Nico Collins 67-yard touchdown late in the first quarter made it 14-3, and it illustrated how depleted the Bills are in the secondary. CB Rasul Douglas clearly thought he had deep help, but rookie Cole Bishop misread the play and Collins was wide open down the middle to reel in Stroud’s perfectly thrown pass. That's the kind of mistake that almost never happened in the Micah Hyde-Jordan Poyer days.

▶ One of the keys to the Bills getting back into the game came with about 10 minutes left in the third quarter. They were down 20-3 and searching for anything on offense when Allen scrambled on a second-and-12. He gained seven yards, but Texans safety Jalen Pitre was nailed for a personal foul, tacking on 15 yards and that seemed to energize the Bills. Dalton Kincaid followed with a 26-yard reception, and James Cook scored from the 5 on the next play.

▶ The moment when it looked like the Bills had a chance came on the Coleman touchdown. It was fourth-and-5 and McDermott knew he had to go for it. Brady made a nice call and Coleman won his route, made a defender miss and then turned what should have been a short gain into a dynamic score and it was 20-17.

▶ Early in the fourth quarter, Brady had another bad moment. The Bills had a first down at the Texans 46 and he called a run to Cook that went for three. Then he doubled down with another run that got blown up for a loss of two, putting the Bills in a tough third-and-9 and when Valdes-Scantling dropped a pass that might have earned the first down, the Bills had to punt.

Bills most valuable player

James Cook had a productive day with 82 yards rushing plus a 24-yard pass reception. Had the Bills fed him the ball at the end, they might have gotten the game to overtime.

Bills least valuable player

Any of the wide receivers not named Keon Coleman because while Coleman caught only one of five targets, at least it went for a touchdown.

Sal Maiorana has covered the Buffalo Bills for four decades including 35 years as the full-time beat writer for the D&C, and he has written numerous books about the history of the team. He can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com, and you can follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana. https://profile.democratandchronicle.com/newsletters/bills-blast

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This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Sean McDermott, Joe Brady fail for second straight week to sink Bills