Bills made NFL history with their poor end-of-game management against the Texans

The Buffalo Bills' end-of-game clock management in their Week 5 loss to the Houston Texans wasn't just bad – it was bad historical arm.

An intentional grounding penalty forced Houston to punt the ball from midfield with less than a minute remaining, 20-20, giving Buffalo possession at its own three-yard line with no timeout available . Instead of trying to run out the clock and force overtime, the Bills threw three consecutive incomplete passes, giving themselves just 16 seconds before sending the ball back to the Texans. Robert Woods hit the punt past midfield before CJ Stroud hit Dare Ogunbowale for five yards on the next play, setting up Ka'imi Fairbairn for the game-winning 59-yard field goal.

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It was just an idiotic mismanagement of the clock that drew ridicule from fans and neutral experts alike. The game management mishap was so absurd, in fact, that it allowed Buffalo to pull off an admittedly undesirable feat: No team in the last four decades has handled a game-ending scenario like the Bills did on Sunday in Houston.

“The Bills are the only team in the last 45 years, according to ESPN Research, to be tied or ahead inside their own 5-yard line in the final minute of the game and throw three passes in a row,” ESPN's Alaina Getzenberg recently wrote in a report article.

Again, this isn't necessarily a good reason to enter the history books, but the information does a great job of illustrating how bizarre the mismanagement was. Buffalo's offense struggled for much of Week 5, with Allen completing the game nine of 30 passes. The running game was the one element of the Bills' offensive attack that consistently lit up all day, and eliminating it entirely from the game plan when you were down was obviously the most promising strategy that just didn't make sense.

The decision to attempt three consecutive passes was met with resistance from fans, analysts and even some in the Buffalo locker room, a veteran Bills player recounted The Buffalo NewsRyan O'Halloran said he “hopes (the coaches) learn from their late-game mismanagement following the Week 5 loss.” Head coach Sean McDermott has taken the blame for the decision; He and the rest of the coaching staff will look to fix their game management issues as they prepare for Week 6 Monday Night Football Clash with the New York Jets.

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