The Buffalo Bills were bowled over and dominated in the trenches all night long against the Houston Texans in Week 12 on “Thursday Night Football.”

Buffalo (7-4) gave up eight sacks to a high-powered and swarming Texans (6-5) defense.

Bills quarterback Josh Allen didn’t throw a touchdown, nor did he rush for a score. Houston registered 12 quarterback hits. Buffalo could muster only one touchdown on offense, a 45-yard rushing touchdown by James Cook on the Bills opening offensive possession. Buffalo’s defense didn’t record a sack against backup QB Davis Mills.

The Bills lost the turnover battle 3-0. Injuries then piled up.

With all of this, Buffalo still had a chance to win the game with a late fourth quarter surge. It wasn’t enough, as the Bills fell 23-19 to Houston.

Buffalo was their own worst enemy throughout the game. The team squandered field position and positive plays with multiple penalties. Josh Allen threw two interceptions, and Khalil Shakir lost a fumble.

Here’s how Bills Wire graded the Bills’ loss to the Texans:

Pass offense: C-

Allen was under duress the entire game. The Texans pass rush, and the Bills inability to adjust to the pressure, completely derailed any sort of plan that the Bills attempted to run. Allen was sacked eight times. Multiple other times, Allen was running for his life. Allen ended the day with a respectable 24-of-34 passing day for 253 yards. However, two interceptions and 70 yards lost due to the sacks demolished any type of positives that could be gleaned from this game.

Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 yards. Shakir was the only receiver who could do anything positive in the receiving game. Buffalo’s receivers simply cannot separate. When they did happen to get away from the Texans secondary, they were not visible to Allen, who was on his back for a good chunk of his dropbacks.

Rushing offense: B

James Cook’s 45-yard touchdown run in the first quarter was the high-water mark for the Bills offense. He was solid throughout the game, but was unable to break out with another massive run after the first drive. While the touchdown run was stellar, many will remember Cook getting stopped on a fourth-down rush in the final frame.

Once again, there wasn’t much to write home about beyond Cook. Allen rushed for times for 20 yards, and Ty Johnson had two carries for seven yards.

Pass defense: C-

The Bills did fairly well with limiting the Texans explosive players. Nico Collins caught three passes for 55 yards, Christian Kirk caught five balls for 54 yards, and Jayden Higgins reeled in four receptions for 38 yards. Higgins and Kirk caught touchdowns.

Quarterback Davis Mills threw for only 153 yards on a 16-of-30 passing day. Mills, however, was never sacked during the game. This, in itself, is stunning. You could look at the sack totals alone and understand how Houston was in complete control in the game.

In addition, the broken coverage by the Bills left Kirk wide open in the end zone. Max Hairston and Taron Johnson got their lines crossed, leaving Kirk alone in the corner of the end zone.

Rush defense: B-

The first half was a bit rough for the Bills run stoppers, as they gave up 79 yards leading into halftime. Buffalo stepped it up in the second half, as Houston totaled only 108 yards for the entire game.

Woody Marks led the way with 74 yards on 16 carries.

The 108 yards allowed on the ground were quite an improvement over the past two weeks, as the Bills gave up an average of 199.5 yards over the previous two weeks.

Coaching: C

The Bills were tossed around by a superior defensive team. The bigger worry is that. The team had no answers for how to adjust to Houston’s pass rush.

Defensively, the Bills did a better job against the run, which was a major problem for this squad.

With so many injuries, the Bills need to find innovative ways to get the ball out of Josh Allen’s hands. There was no answer to this: the eight sacks were unacceptable. The breakdowns in protection were awful.

The defense did better in the second half, which is a credit to McDermott and Bobby Babich. Nevertheless, a complete 60-minute effort may be needed going forward with the offense’s inconsistency.