It’s December and as Christmas approaches you can feel how frenetic life becomes. I try and carve out my weekly three hours of sacred time – the Bills game – but it gets difficult – there’s just so much to do! But the holiday season is also a spirit of hope – you’ll know that as a Bills fan. In our pendulum swing between great optimism and soul-crushing despair, we’ve reached the hope stage of the year.

The hope stage – you probably know it well. The season starts with great optimism – THIS is going to be the year – things are different this year. Wins come and this turns into unbridled joy and the euphoria of seeing the Bills ranked in the top ten of just about every power ranking. Then come the losses – especially those games you never thought the Bills would lose – emotions come back to earth and you’re staring at yet another year like so many past. Before the Bills fall into a final death spiral they manage to pull out and give you hope, and that’s where we are today – hope is keeping us alive.

Sunday’s win against Houston was huge – we lose that and suddenly all the talk about the draft and the future – about new players and new coaches. After last week’s loss to Kansas City I was pretty much convinced that the Bills were going to extend their NFL record playoff drought going. I can’t say that I'm optimistic about the Bills’ chances to see January football beyond the Jets game, I will admit to at least having some hope.

Every so often the Bills win a game that make me feel pretty good about the team as a whole and the direction they’re taking – Sunday was such a game. The Bills didn’t blow Houston out of the water or put up gaudy stats on the stat sheet – late in the game it was tied – but the win was satisfying for a number of reasons – THIS was how the Bills are supposed to win games.

All season long we’ve heard about how the Bills were built to win football games this season – rely on a power run game heavily to move the ball, have a game-manager quarterback who didn’t need to win the game but who also wouldn’t lose it, take some downfield shots to stretch the field and get the most out of talent like Sammy Watkins, and on defense play solid, play stingy and keep the score down. Sadly, this hasn’t been what we’ve seen from the Bills this season – we’ve seen different parts of the plan at different times, but rarely have we seen the full package together – until Sunday.

The Bills started the game on defense and forced the Texans to go three-and-out, then took the ball and drove 53 yards to score a touchdown on their first offensive possession. 50 of those yards came on the ground – Tyrod Taylor’s first and only pass on the drive was the 3-yard touchdown pass to Watkins to cap it.

The second defensive effort from the Bills looked more like what we’ve seen all year – some solid defensive plays marred by an inability to make a play to get off the field. The Bills allowed Houston to convert a third down by a penalty, convert a third-and-one with a 7-yard pass and gave up a 17-yard run on third-and-seven. In the end, Houston scored a touchdown after driving 80 yards – a missed extra point kept the Bills in the lead.

Luckily, the Bills offense was ready to keep rolling. Once again it was the run game – all 71 yards on the next drive came on the ground that ended up with an amazing Tyrod Taylor score as he tightroped down the sideline to the pylon. The Bills had scored 14 points with Taylor only throwing the ball twice – if that’s not a run-oriented offense I don’t know what is.

That’s not to say that Taylor wasn’t doing his job – on the contrary, he was playing his role perfectly. Taylor finished the first half with 4 rushes for 25 yards and 4 of 7 passes for 70 yards and two touchdowns. Taylor ran when he needed to run, found the open man when he passed and kept the defense honest by throwing the deep ball when needed – connecting with Watkins on a 53-yard bomb on the third touchdown drive. This is the type of play the coaches have wanted to see for Taylor every week and they got it on Sunday.

The offensive line played an extraordinary half of football, giving Taylor time to throw and opening holes in the running game. Most importantly, they neutralized J.J. Watt, not an easy task. What’s more, the right side of the line was not the usual starters, making the performance all the more impressive.

By halftime the Bills were up 21-13. Given the team’s poor history of making meaningful in-game halftime adjustments, I feared the Bills lead could be short-lived, but the third quarter came and went without either team scoring. Dan Carpenter had an opportunity to add to the Bills’ lead, but his 50-yard field goal was no good.

With just over 9 minutes to go the Texans tied up the game when DeAndre Hopkins pushed off on Ronald Darby for a 19-yard touchdown followed by a ridiculously easy 2-point conversion run and the game was tied – here we go, here’s where the Bills let it slip away.

With just over two minutes to play the Bills found the end zone again on a 40-yard strike to a wide open Charles Clay. The ensuing extra point was a disaster as Colton Schmidt put the laces towards Carpenter and the kick hit the left upright. I like Carpenter, but Joe Dirt scares the hell out of me this season – he’s just so inconsistent and I figured this missed extra point was going to haunt the Bills.

Finally, it was up to the defense to come up with a stop to win the game and the Bills did it – they stopped the Texans on four consecutive downs and the game was essentially over – whew!

And so the Bills continue on in their quest for the playoffs, fueled by hope. If they play more games the way they played on Sunday, possibly with an even tighter defense, the Bills might stand a shot at the postseason – the hopeful side of me wants to believe that. Of course this is the Bills and they have a tendency to string all fans along until it’s really painful to lose and this could be another one of those seasons. For now I’ll give in to hope – I just hope it doesn’t come back to burn me.