Redzone’s Scott Hanson had choice words for Bills in final seconds

Scott Hanson’s bladder might’ve been full during seven hours of commercial-free football on the longest day in NFL history, but even he had time to question the Bills on their late-game playcalls in a 23-20 loss at Houston on Sunday.

Tied at 20, Buffalo took possession at its own 5-yard line with 32 seconds left. Houston had all three timeouts.

“What are they doing, just throwing the ball up here,” Hanson asked during NFL Redzone as Josh Allen heaved a second straight deep incompletion, courtesy of Awful Announcing. “That is wild, ladies and gentlemen. Two dangerous throws from his own end zone. And, I tell you what, Sean McDermott’s got to be saying the same thing. Aggressive is aggressive but there’s only 20 seconds to go in regulation, and then we head to overtime. And there’s 95 yards in front of us here.”

On third-and-10, Allen threw another incompletion.

“This is almost like they don’t know the score of the game,” Hanson remarked, just before Sam Martin punted with his heels on his own end line. “It’s tied at 20-20. And now, they’re going to have to punt from their own end zone after three incomplete passes. It only took about nine seconds, 12 seconds off of the game clock. I am dumbfounded.”

After Robert Woods returned the punt 13 yards, C.J. Stroud completed a short pass to Dare Ogunbowale and the Texans called their first timeout with two seconds on the clock.

“This is astounding what we’re seeing in game management between Buffalo and Houston,” Hanson continued, just before Ka’imi Fairbairn hit a walk-off, 59-yard field goal. “Ladies and gentlemen, the Buffalo Bills news conferences, between the head coach and the quarterback, will be very interesting at the end of this game.”

And at the end of the game, McDermott took accountability for the three passing plays. Allen, playing his first game at Houston since a 2019 playoff contest, had one of the worst games of his career, completing just 9 of 30 passes for 131 yards and a touchdown.

Buffalo (3-2) has lost consecutive games for the first time since Nov. 13 and suddenly owns just a one-game lead in the AFC East ahead of the Jets (2-3) and Dolphins (2-3). The Jets will now have an opportunity to tie for first place when they square off with the Bills on Monday Night Football (8:15 p.m. ET, ESPN) at MetLife Stadium.