AP Photo
Houston Texans place kicker Ka’imi Fairbairn (15) kicks a 59-yard field goal on the final play of the game to beat the Buffalo Bills on Sunday in Houston.
HOUSTON — All week, Stefon Diggs downplayed how big it would be when he faced the Buffalo Bills for the first time since a blockbuster trade brought him to Houston.
On Sunday, after the Texans used a last-second field goal to eke out a 23-20 victory, the star receiver finally 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 just 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 tiebreaking 59-yard field goal as time expired lifted Houston to the victory.
Diggs led the Texans with six receptions for 82 yards and said that Sunday was an emotional day for him after spending the past 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 look directly in the camera and whispered in a sing-song voice.
“I’m emotional,” he said.
The Texans (4-1) led 20-3 after a field goal early in third quarter before the Bills scored 17 straight points to tie it with about 3½ minutes to go.
Stroud was called for intentional grounding to bring up fourth-and-15 and take the Texans out of field-goal range with less than a minute left.
A punt backed the Bills up to their 3 and they punted after three straight incomplete passes to give Houston one last chance.
“Overall, that’s on me,” Buffalo coach Sean McDermott said. “We’ve just got to do a better job. I have to do a better job in that situation.”
Dare Ogunbowale had a 5-yard run to set up Fairbairn’s game winner.
“It wasn’t all pretty,” coach DeMeco Ryans said. “But it’s the way you finish at the end and I’m proud of the way our guys finished.”
Already without running back Joe Mixon for a fourth straight game, Houston struggled offensively after losing NFL receiving leader Nico Collins to a hamstring injury after he scored a long touchdown early in the second quarter. Ryans said he would by listed as day to day with the injury.
Josh Allen was 9 of 30 for 131 yards and a touchdown as the Bills (3-2) lost for a second straight week after opening the season with three straight wins. Allen struggled before halftime again Sunday, managing just 56 yards passing a week after throwing for 42 yards in the first half of a rout by the Ravens.
“Overall 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 to play.
They had the first play of the ensuing drive with Mitchell Trubisky at QB while Allen was in the medical tent being checked out after banging his head hard on the turf a few plays earlier. He re-entered the game on second down but threw two incompletions.
The Bills tied it on a 33-yard field goal.
The Texans were driving with about eight minutes left when Terrel Bernard intercepted a pass intended for Diggs to give Buffalo the ball at its 20.
The Bills couldn’t move the ball and had to punt, but soon got it back on the strip-sack.
The Bills cut the lead to 10 when James Cook scored on a 5-yard run with about nine minutes left in the third quarter.
Rookie Keon Coleman’s 49-yard reception on fourth-and-5 got the Bills within 20-17 on their next drive. Coleman slipped a tackle and then darted down the sideline before flipping into the end zone for his second TD this season.
The touchdown pass was the 231st in Allen’s career, tying him with Patrick Mahomes for the most 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 left in the first quarter. Ogunbowale had a 38-yard catch-and-run on third-and-5 to keep that drive going.
Collins got in front of the defense for a 67-yard touchdown reception on the first play of Houston’s next drive to extend the lead to 14-3.
Fairbairn added a 50-yard field goal as time expired in the second quarter and his 47-yarder early in the third made it 20-3.
INJURIES
Texans RB British Brooks left with a knee injury in the first quarter. … S Jimmie Ward left in the second with a groin injury.
UP NEXT
Bills: Visit the New York Jets on Monday, Oct. 14.
Texans: Visit New England next Sunday.