Defensive end Mario Williams returned to Houston a much richer man on Sunday after signing a six-year, $100 million contract during the offseason with the Buffalo Bills.

The Houston Texans, off to their best start in franchise history, showed their #1 overall pick of the 2006 draft first hand that they’re doing fine without him.

Matt Schaub threw for 268 yards and two touchdowns, Arian Foster racked up 111 yards on the ground, Andre Johnson totaled 118 yards on eight receptions, and the Texans (7-1) notched another one in the win column with a 21-9 victory over Williams and the Bills (3-5).

“We’re happy to be 7-1 at the halfway mark,” said Schaub. “But we’re not finished. We’ve got to go into a tough environment against a very good team next Sunday night.”

The Texans never made Williams any type of offer once he hit the free agent market, but their defense hasn’t missed a single beat in their first season without him since ‘06, as they’re ranked fourth in the league in points allowed, surrendering an average of just 17.1 per game.

He finished the game with five tackles and one sack.

Leading 14-9 early in the fourth quarter, Houston capped off an 11-play, 68-yard drive when Schaub tossed a five-yard touchdown pass to tight end Garrett Graham on 3^rd and 5 with 11:25 remaining to extend the lead to two possessions at 21-9.

Their defense closed out from there. They imposed their will on Houston all day long, specifically in the run game. Bills quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick had 239 yards through the air on 25 completions, but running backs C.J. Spiller and Fred Jackson combined for just 60 yards on 12 rushes.

“We didn’t want to let them run the football,” said Texans defensive coordinator Wade Phillips. “We had to stop the running game and I thought we did that.”

A 39-yard touchdown grab by tight end Owen Daniels gave the Texans the first score of the game with less than a minute left in the first quarter. Buffalo knocked through two field goals for the only other points of the first half.

Taking advantage of a short field following a 26yard punt return by receiver and special teams extraordinaire Brad Smith, Houston had to go just 43 yards to get into the end zone with a three-yard Foster run and push their lead to 14-9. Foster had four carries and nine yards on the drive, and was set up by a 34-yard catch by Johnson.

Texans head coach Gary Kubiak wasn’t thrilled with his team’s performance, given that it wasn’t at its most dominating offensively or in the defensive passing game. Nonetheless, he’ll take it.

“We did a lot of things that are not good enough for us to win consistently,” Kubiak said. “But yet we found a way to survive.”

Houston will travel north for what would appear to be one of the most intriguing games of the year thus far: a battle with another 7-1 heavyweight, The Chicago Bears.

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For all the talk this year about Chris Johnson losing his step and not being worth his new contract that made him one of the highest paid players in the league, he’s recently found his legs and just in time as the Titans make a push for the playoffs.

After a two month hiatus Johnson has comeback in a huge way rushing for 190 yards last week, and this time rushing for 153 yards and two touchdowns on 23 carries, as the Titans gave the slumping Bills another loss 23-17. The Titans now sit at 7-5 and are in a tie for the final wild card spot with four other teams.

The Bills, who started the season on fire, now find themselves at 5-7 and out of the playoff race losing their fifth straight on Sunday. The Bills are now in a battle for the bottom of the AFC East as Miami beat Oakland on Sunday and pulled to within one game of the Bills. For the Titans, next up is the red hot New Orleans Saints who are coming off a big win over the Detroit Lions.

“In the beginning of the season, the passing game carried us, and now it’s time for the running game to step it up,” Johnson said. “The offensive line and everything is hitting on all cylinders right now, and hopefully we can continue to keep this momentum going.”

The Titans moved ahead when Johnson broke a run 48 yards for the score and they never looked back. On the Titans next possession he ran another in from four yards out which put Tennessee up 17-7. Rob Bironas added three field goals along with two fumbles the Titans won an easy one over the Bills.

Buffalo which looked like an early team to contend for a playoff spot, rushing out to a 5-2 record, has gone into a tailspin. The Bills are currently  looking more like the team that was 0-8 last year, and that no one expected to do anything this year. ”Extremely shocked and disappointed: All those words,” quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick said. “The way we’ve played lately hasn’t been good enough.”

C.J. Spiller who has been filling in for the injured Fred Jackson had a career high 83 yard performance and a touchdown. His touchdown came on a 35 yard run. Stevie Johnson, who was under fire for his antics during last weekends’ game when he mocked Plaxico Burress by pretending to shoot himself in the leg after he scored a touchdown, had 5 catches for 52 yards and a touchdown.

“Last week was last week,” said Johnson, “We moved on to the Titans and we tried to get this W and we came up short.” The Bills looked like they might mount a comeback, but ran out of time at the end of the game. The Bills try to snap their losing skid next week when they travel to the West coast for a showdown with the San Diego Chargers, who snapped their own losing streak with a win Monday night over the Jaguars.

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Tennessee will head to Buffalo on Sunday looking to keep pace with the rest of the teams in the wild card hunt. Tennessee is seeking its first back to back wins in almost two months and will need to make a run in the last few weeks in order to have a shot at making the playoffs. The Bills on the other side will probably have to win out the rest of their games just to have a shot at making it.

Tennessee is in a position where it could maybe catch up to the first place Houston Texans with the Texans down to their third-string quarterback T.J. Yates, a rookie from North Carolina, and the recently signed Jake Delhomme. With the teams finishing out the season against each other a few wins and Tennessee could be playing for the division in that final game.

“We’re aware of where we are in the standings every week and what our situation is, and that’s why we have to realize how important this game is for us,” coach Mike Munchak said. “We’ve got to win if we’re going to have a chance to play more than 16 games.” The Bills suffered their fifth straight road loss and fourth loss on the road last Sunday when they fell 28-24 to the New York Jets.

“We have to win out, and we probably have to get some help — and that’s what I told the team,” coach Chan Gailey said. While the offense, which had been lacking in the previous three losses, bounced back against the Jets, too many penalties doomed the Bills in MetLife Stadium. They committed a season high 9 penalties and gave up 138 yards on just 23 carries to a running game that had been struggling.

The Bills are giving up 123.8 yards on the ground per game which is ranked 21^st in the league, and it won’t be easier for them this week as they face running back Chris Johnson who is coming off his best performance this season rushing for 190 yards. Another problem for the Bills could be if they let the Titans get to the red zone as they rank second to last in TD efficiency inside the 20 and the Titans hold the NFL’s highest mark scoring a TD over 70 percent of the time they get there.

With leading rusher Fred Jackson out for the year, and C.J. Spiller not filling the role effectively so far the Bills will have to rely on Ryan Fitzpatrick and the passing attack to put up points. That plays right into Tennessee’s strength as they have the 13^th ranked passing attack giving up only 229.1 yards per game.

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It wasn’t as easy for the New York Jets in their second game with the Buffalo Bills, but the end result was the same. The Jets won a critical game and kept their playoff hopes alive. Led by Mark Sanchez and his career high four touchdown passes, the Jets escaped Sunday’s game with a win when Sanchez found Santonio Holmes for a 16-yard score with just over a minute left to keep the Jets in the thick of the AFC playoff race.

“He’s at his best in big moments,” coach Rex Ryan said. This was as big a moment as the Jets have had all season and with the win they now have only five more to go. The sentiment through the Jets locker room this week has been that they have to win in order to make it to the post season. It was looking like that was going to end with the first game when Dave Rayner hit a 53-yard field goal to put the Bills up 24-21.

Sanchez then led the Jets down the field, the key play coming on a third and 11 from the Bills 36 where Sanchez found Plaxico Burress along the sideline. Burress reached up and made an amazing one handed catch for 18 yards and the first down. ”It was crazy,” Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis said of the catch. “He’s 6-foot-5 and he’s got those ‘Go-Go-Gadget’ arms. It was probably one of the best catches I’ve seen in a while.”

Sanchez ran a sneak to assure there would be no challenge and then on the next play rolled out right and found Holmes in the end zone for the go ahead score. Though posting a career high in touchdown passes, Sanchez was far from great. He finished 17 of 35 for 180 yards and a pick, but when things mattered most, he prevailed.

His Bills counterpart, Ryan Fitzpatrick, bounced back from a streak of bad games to go 26 of 39 for 264 yards and three touchdowns, but couldn’t manage one more at the end. Fitzpatrick found a wide open Stevie Johnson, but Johnson dropped the pass. He also missed Johnson in the end zone as he threw behind him and the catch couldn’t be made.

Johnson made headlines for other reasons than just the dropped pass. He scored a touchdown late in the first half and to celebrate mocked shooting himself in the thigh, clearly a shot at Plaxico Burress who had accidentally shot himself in the leg in a nightclub in 2008 when he was with the Giants.

He then continued by mocking the “flight” celebration many of the Jets use after they score and fell to the ground which got a flag for 15 yards and ended up leading to the Jets tying the game back up 14-14. ”I was just having fun and part of having fun ended up being a penalty and a touchdown for the Jets,” Johnson said. “It was a stupid decision by myself.”

“I’ve seen worse, and I’ve heard worse,” Burress said of Johnson’s celebration. “So, it doesn’t bother me at all. The result I’m looking at is we won the football game.”

The Jets have won their first game and look to continue their streak for the playoffs as they head down to Washington to square off with quarterback troubled Redskins. The Bills, now losers of four straight games look to snap the streak as they head home to face Matt Hasselback and the Tennessee Titans.
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The Buffalo Bills won their fifth game of the season by shutting down the Washington Redskins’ offense to secure a 0-23 victory. The Bills were able to make sure the Redskins were unable to get the ball moving in their running play, with the Redskins only able to rush for a total of 26 yards the whole game.

Although the Bills were not able to score a rushing touchdown, running back Fred Jackson was able to help move the ball down the field for a total of 120 yards on 26 attempts. The Redskins were also unable to capitalize on passing drives as well.

Quarterback John Beck threw a total of 208 yards in the game off of 20 completed passes, along with giving up two interceptions to Bills’ Jairus Byrd and George Wilson. Washington receiver Fred Davis provided the most help and scoring chances, getting 94 yards on eight catches.

The Bills were able to move the ball downfield successfully through the air throughout the game. Quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick through for a total of 262 yards off 21 completed catches, along with throwing two touchdown passes and an interception. Receiver Scott Chandler caught both touchdown passes on the only two passes thrown to him in the game.

The main target was Jackson, who caught three passes for 74 yards. Kicker Rian Lindell provided 11 points for the Bills, going three for four in field goal kicks along with two extra point kicks after each touchdown. The Washington Redskins (3-4) fly back home to face the visiting San Francisco 49ers on Sunday, while the Buffalo Bills (5-2) welcome the visiting New York Jets on Sunday.

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