The highly anticipated return to Houston for Mario Williams went in his favor Sunday afternoon, but his production wasn't enough to propel the Bills to victory.
The defensive end finished the game with a team high seven tackles, two for a loss and one sack after having surgery on his wrist just last week.
Williams admitted the surgery has given him a needed boost of confidence.
"I believe in it healing now instead of it just being stagnant," Williams said. "I worked out this week finally, which hasn't been over two months. I feel really good and it definitely boosted my morale."
Williams' sacked Texans' quarterback Matt Schaub on a 2nd and 9 from the Buffalo 19 yard line for a four-yard loss. The sack backed the Texans up to the 23- yard line and two plays later, Buffalo defensive tackle Alex Carrington blocked a 46-yard field goal attempt by Houston to keep it at a one score game.
Williams admitted he needed to come back to Houston and play well.
"I had to at least get one (sack)," Williams said. "I couldn't come in here and not. I had to some how, some way, get to him. I wish it had been more. Definitely had some more opportunities, but they're a very fundamentally sound team."
Although Williams and the Bills' rush defense held the Texans' to 118 yards on the ground, Schaub had no problem with the Bill
s' pass defense, throwing for 268 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions.
Williams said the defense struggled most with the play action pass, but head coach Chan Gailey praised his team for keeping them in the game.
"They (the defense) played really, really hard," Gailey said. "If we can build off of this defensively because that team was in the top five or six in most categories on both sides of the ball. They're record is what it is for a reason."
Williams agreed with Gailey that the run defense was much improved, but still needs to find more consistency.
"We have to do it every play and every series because we can do it," said Williams on stopping the run. "Just keep an eye on that gap. To face an elite running back like that (Arian Foster) and be able to maintain him from what he's done and his offense has done to everybody else they beat. It's just the little things. It's about us being in position and not getting to nosy and doing your job."
After four consecutive weeks of giving up 180-plus rushing yards, the Bills defense did a respectable job of holding one of the NFL's elite running backs, Arian Foster, to 111 yards. They were particularly effective in the third quarter holding Foster to just 16 yards on eight carries.
The two-time Pro Bowl back said he knew prior to the game that Williams would be a huge threat to their offense after he spent six seasons with the team.
"He is obviously one of the most physically dominating players in the NFL today and he could take over a game whenever he wants to," Foster said. "He knows this offense; he has been around it for five years so we weren't tricking him out there. He made plays like he should and will continue to. He is just a very good physical specimen. It is very hard to contain him all the time."
Texans' tackle Derek Newton also noted the challenge Williams brings every Sunday.
"He's a tough guy to play against," Newton said. "I had to be patient in the pass rush and adjust my stance a couple of times. Most of the day, I had to man up against him without really any help. Luckily I had the chance of going against Mario last year in practice while he was on the team, but I mainly studied film of him and tried to get an idea of what he would do in certain situations."
Although Williams is encouraged about the outlook for his wrist and showed it in his play on Sunday he was just as disappointed leaving Houston as the rest of his teammates.
"At the end of the day you want to get a win," he said. "That's the most important thing. We didn't come out and win so that's tough."
