Every heart in Western New York stopped in unison on Thursday night.
It was about 9 p.m. Along the Erie Canal when Josh Allen was taken to the turf in Houston, hard, by superstar pass rusher Will Anderson. That's when Allen started writhing in pain.
On first glance, no one could even tell exactly what Allen had hurt. It was just clear he was hurting.
Minutes later, hearts could finally start again in Bills Mafia when Allen appeared to be OK, but that was luck. This could've been so much worse.
And the Bills did nothing to stop it.
Thursday night's loss to the Texans was a tough defeat against a tough defense, yes.
But it was also a head-scratching case of Buffalo putting Allen in harm's way, again and again.
The run game was working, but the Bills didn't run enough. Instead, they asked Allen to take deep drops against the best pass-rush unit on the planet. No wonder he was sacked eight times and was running for his life all night long.
At some point, the Bills' season should've come into focus. They should've realized that this was a game Allen couldn't win by playing Superman. The only thing that could happen by Allen trying to do too much against this team would be an injury that would effectively end Buffalo's chances of winning anything important this year.
There was another scare late in the second half, a third-down sack in which Allen came up grimacing and trying to shake out his right arm. Maybe it had to do with the first-half injury. Maybe not.
But it's the exact scene you don't want to see with a franchise quarterback, with a guy who many consider the best player in the NFL, definitely not twice in the same night.
This was Joe-Burrow-on-the-Bengals level of malpractice. The Bills proved to themselves early and often that they couldn't protect Allen, and that even the superb Allen couldn't protect himself.
And yet they kept putting him in harm's way, trying the same thing over and over, expecting a different result, the very definition of insanity.
The loss stinks, sure. Scoring three points in the second half feels inexcusable, yeah. Not getting across the line after that sweet hook and ladder play on fourth and 27 is a bummer, definitely.
But the Bills put themselves on the brink of something so much more devastating on Thursday night.
A whole host of Buffalo players got hurt in this game. Some came back. Some, like Terrel Bernard with a nasty-looking right elbow injury, didn't.
It was a brutal night that would've felt like a Phyrric victory even in a win.
So the lack of a win, really, winds up meaning very little.
The Bills should just fly home grateful that Allen's season isn't over. Because too often on this night, they left that hanging in the balance.
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