Bills and Texans each fumbled twice, Bills recovered all four on way to 36-31 win

The Bills’ 36-31 win over the Texans could have gone the other way if some fumbled footballs had bounced a little differently.

Both teams fumbled twice in the game, and the Bills recovered all four fumbles. In a one-possession game that was decided when the Bills recovered C.J. Stroud’s second fumble with nine seconds left, any one of those fumbles landing in a Texan’s hands could have altered the outcome. All four fumbles going the other way almost certainly would have given the Texans the win.

Another crucial fumble recovery came when Bills running back James Cook put the ball on the ground with three minutes left in the fourth quarter and the Bills trailing 31-30. If the Texans had recovered that, they might have been able to run out the clock and win the game. Instead, Bills offensive lineman O’Cyrus Torrence recovered the fumble and the Bills scored the game-winning touchdown later in that drive.

Bills head coach Joe Brady noted that the hustle of Torrence, whom the team calls Cyborg or Cybo, was crucial to the win.

“We put the ball on the ground there,” Brady said. “If our offensive line isn’t doing the little things we ask and run to the football, and Cybo doesn’t recover that football, and we end up losing that game, a lot of people will point to the fact that we fumbled. And we did fumble. It can’t be just because we won the football game that, ‘Oh, that didn’t happen, we had no turnovers.’”

Brady said Cook was mad at himself for fumbling and that the Bills aren’t overlooking how fortunate they were on fumble recoveries.

“He was pissed. I talked to him on the plane. He knows how important he is to our football team,” Brady said of Cook. “He understands that when he has the ball he has all of our jobs on the line. He was not happy after that. Even through the win, we’ve got to clean that up.”

Brady knows the Bills can’t count on recovering 100 percent of fumbles every week.