There have been a few primetime games like this lately, with plenty of scoring in the first half but almost nothing in the second half. When time ran out, you've got the early-season AFC favorite Bills needing to win some tough games just to ensure they're in the playoffs.

They're 7-4, still in the driver's seat for one of the wildcards. But the remaining schedule has some tough games: at Pittsburgh next week, at New England and Cleveland, home against the Bengals and Eagles. That Steelers game looks huge for both, and the Buffalo team that lost last night and to the Dolphins a couple of weeks ago doesn't look like a shoo-in anymore.

QUARTERBACKS

Scary moment in the first half last night where Will Anderson tackled Josh Allen and landed on him with his full weight, driving Allen's face into the turf and bending his wrist at a seemingly awkward angle. Allen initially didn't get up and then was kind of writhing in pain. He got up, didn't miss any action, seemed to be OK, but there were some bad-looking throws (including the game-ending interception) which makes you wonder if he's completely fine. (He also almost had the winning touchdown pass to Gabe Davis of course.) He was sacked 8 (!) times -- Allen was sacked just 14 times all of last season -- and would have finished under 200 passing yards but for a very cool hook and lateral play on the final drive to convert a 4th and 27. Bad way to lose an over-under passing yards bet. He didn't run much, except when he was scrambling from Anderson and the Texans pass rush. Everyone who won their matchup last week because of Allen's 6 touchdowns is probably already penciling in a loss this week.

How about that Davis Mills? Mills now has as many wins in his three starts (3) as C.J. Stroud had in eight. (Not much to say about Stroud now missing three games due to a concussion beyond, kind of troubling.) Mills completed just over half of his passes for only 153 yards and didn't get the team in the end zone in the second half. But he also didn't take any sacks, didn't turn it over, and was able to finish a couple of drives with touchdowns -- good enough. Looks like he'll have a long career of being a veteran backup, probably with Houston and maybe elsewhere; doing his job, and giving the Texans just enough to keep them in the playoff picture despite not being very good offensively.

RUNNING BACKS

If you had James Cook, you could relax early on, with Cook following a nice block to take a third-and-short 45 yards for a touchdown where he wasn't touched. Caught a few short passes to help the PPR stat line. Lost some passing downs work to Ty Johnson, but nobody is complaining about what they got from him.

Woody Marks looked really good with his chances, so it was disappointing he didn't get more. Busted 6-, 12- and 19-yard runs the first three times he touched the ball, with the latter one nearly a touchdown, barely unable to get past the last defender. But with no scores and just 1 catch (the Texans had Dare Ogunbowale in the game for a couple of passing downs, including near the goal line, which was annoying), a disappointing game in fantasy leagues despite doing his best to take advantage of the choice matchup. At least he wasn't losing a lot to Nick Chubb (a 7-yard run, but just 5 other carries for 9 yards; it's over). Marks caught 47 passes for Southern Cal last season, it would be nice to see the Texans take a little more advantage of his work in that area. (Not presuming to know better than the coaching staff, but this is a bottom-12 NFL offense, so there's some room for improvement.)

WIDE RECEIVERS

Just 3 targets last night for Nico Collins, all in the first half. On the third of those, on Houston's final (game-winning, as it turned out) drive right before the half, he took a big shot and was slow to get up. He continued to play in the second half, but I'm wondering if there was some injury (ribs?) that had him as more of a decoy. Mills completed only 5 passes period after halftime so not entirely specific to Collins, but it's something to keep an eye on in the early practice reports next week. Assuming health, he'll be better with Stroud back.

It was notable that Mills targets around the end zone went to Houston's other wide receivers: Christian Kirk and Jayden Higgins, who scored, and Jaylin Noel, who didn't. Kirk and Higgins are factors in that part of the field. Houston is expected to have Stroud back next week so who Mills favored in that area may not mean much, but a disappointing outing for the Texans receivers actually started anywhere.

With Buffalo, looking at the final gamebook you've got a super-looking game (8 for 110) for Khalil Shakir, which nobody is unhappy about. Season highs in catches and yards for the No. 1. Almost half of the yards came on the final drive (33 on the trick play) and Shakir hasn't scored in a month, but I guess we can't rip him (even though his 3 first-half catches went for a total of 4 yards).

Let's instead rip Buffalo's other wide receivers, all of which are totally unusable. Thinking out loud here, maybe their move a few years back to bring in a legit No. 1 like Stefon Diggs was a good one, and their more recent, repeated moves to sign a whole bunch of marginal veteran cast-offs like Curtis Samuel and Elijah Moore and Joshua Palmer were poor ones. It's not their fault that Keon Coleman and Gabe Davis (so close to a winning reception last night…) didn't or haven't really worked out, but if the Bills again fall short of the Super Bowl, which is how things are looking nowadays, the modest receiving corps is definitely going to be something they need to actually attempt to upgrade with someone better than what they've been signing in recent years.

TIGHT ENDS

Not a lot to say here. With a bunch of involved wideouts and not much passing of any kind in the second half, Dalton Schultz had a dud. It's been kind of a rough year for tight ends outside the top handful and Schultz is just a guy, no one can be too surprised when he has a just a guy outing with a backup quarterback on a team that's not very good offensively.

Dawson Knox caught 3 short passes and Jackson Hawes 2, but these are just guys, as well. Buffalo's offense really misses Dalton Kincaid, who's been the closest thing they have to a difference-making receiver this year, with a pair of 6-catch, 100-yard performances in his last three. Hopefully the mini-bye helps get him healthy and he can be out there for the game at Pittsburgh next week.

MISCELLANEOUS

Buffalo scored on a kick return, which was all you got from their defense. I've been thinking there might be more kick returns the second half of the season, as teams get more comfortable with the new system and have a better idea of what works and so forth, although this one was just kind of flukey, with Ray Davis bouncing and spinning off a big hit and keeping on going, with defenders having slowed down, thinking the play was going to be over. The other special teams note was the Bills missing an early extra point, which ended up being kind of critical in a game they lost by 4 (throwing an interception while in field goal range in the final minutes).

Texans defense now 2nd in takeaways and 3rd in sacks. Their remaining schedule should help them keep that going, including both Colts games (depending on which Daniel Jones shows up), Las Vegas, Arizona and the Chargers, most of which are pretty favorable for a defense.

AFC playoff picture is looking crowded. Consider that there are currently 8 teams with winning records, no more than 7 of them will make the playoffs, and Baltimore and Kansas City are both 5-5. I think they're both going to win a majority of their remaining games and get in, which would mean there are three AFC teams currently with more wins than losses who won't make the postseason. Houston and Jacksonville seem pretty likely to be one or two of those teams, and the Texans still have both Colts games and one at Kansas City. Should be a wild final six weeks.