Two Bills Drive

‘The Texans had 258 yards total offense, more than their season average, in the first half compared with the Bills’ 181.’

‘Drew Bledsoe he wasn’t, certainly not in the end. Bledsoe trumped him in most of the individual statistical categories and, more importantly, on the scoreboard, picking the Texans’ defense to pieces in the Bills’ 21-point second half. But D.C. was pretty good, spending much of his work day outperforming a fellow who started in a Super Bowl before he graduated from high school.’

‘"We were thinking, `Go down and score and go to overtime,’ " receiver Corey Bradford said. "From the beginning, we were prepared to go to overtime." A fourth-quarter charge by the Bills made sure that wouldn’t happen.’

‘"Me and Jay had been talking all game," Price said. "I had a corner route, and he and Aaron did a great job breaking it up. Then he ran over me and bumped me out. He was in my face and kept yapping. I reacted, but the referee got him. That is what coach (Gregg) Williams tells us to do. Let the other guys do all the yip-yapping. "It was big. Jay had two big penalties on that sequence, and I know they’re probably getting on him now, because it allowed us to tie the game up."’

‘"To win an NFL game, you have got to out-execute your opponent for 60 minutes and we didn’t do that," said Texans coach Dom Capers. "The most frustrating thing with today’s performance was the penalties. They really hurt us. It’s an emotional game. But you can’t do that, because the whole team suffers."’

‘"You have to give a lot of the credit to Henry," Texans linebacker Keith Mitchell said. "I played against him when was a rookie, but he’s a different back than he was then. He really impressed me."’

‘Eric Moulds got most of the attention in terms of coverage schemes played by the Texans, who tried to double Moulds as much as possible. For the most part, the strategy worked; Moulds didn’t catch a pass in the first half and only caught four in the game, although one went for a touchdown. The Texans took more chances with Peerless Price, and he made them pay, catching eight passes for 121 yards and the game-winning touchdown against safety Matt Stevens.’

‘With the score tied at 24 with 4:02 remaining in the game, the Bills found themselves at the Texans’ 26, needing to convert a third-and-six or be forced to attempt a field goal. Receiver Peerless Price worked his way open against Texans safety Matt Stevens, and quarterback Drew Bledsoe found him for what became the game-winning touchdown.’

‘"The Texans had a good game plan for us," said Bledsoe, who finished 19 of 33 for 254 yards. "They decided, ‘Hey, we’re not going to let you guys beat us with your two receivers.’ If they’re going to commit seven guys to our passing game, we’ve got to be able to run the ball, and Travis did an outstanding job."’

‘"I don’t know why I did what I did, but we had the game," Foreman said. "I can’t believe I did that."’

‘Former TCU standout defensive end Aaron Schobel leads the Bills with 4.5 sacks, and he said Buffalo expected Texans rookie quarterback David Carr to make more errors in only his fifth NFL start. ‘We took some shots from the Texans offense early,’ Schobel said. ‘With Carr being such a young quarterback, we hoped that he would make a mistake, but he never did.”

‘Houston, focused in on stopping Bledsoe, allowed Henry to rush for a career-high 159 yards and a pair of touchdowns. But some of that yardage came after missed tackles – Henry broke two tackles on a 23-yard third-quarter touchdown run – as did the Bills final touchdown.’

‘Giving Drew Bledsoe — especially the Drew Bledsoe of this season — a fresh set of downs, is like giving a hard-hitting baseball team four outs. It’s a sure-fire way to get burned and Bledsoe, who had been held reasonably in check for three quarters, torched the Texans.’

‘”We knes that we’d have to be aggressive because they’d played three games in overtime,” Houston coach Dom Capers said. “We talked all week about we might have to win on the last play of the game. The most frustrating thing is we had a couple of penalties that really hurt.”‘

‘Irons had plenty of fans rooting for him at the game, including his parents, grandmother, brother and other friends from The Woodlands. “He was able to get twenty-eight tickets, so he had a big group here,” said Grant’s father, Gerald, a former NFL player who is a CISD school board member and an employee of The Woodlands Operating Company. “We had our company-wide tailgate party today. About fifty people came in on the bus from The Woodlands Operating Company. Everybody is excited at the company.”‘