The CBS broadcast camera cut to Josh Allen sitting on the bench. He used his right index finger to brush his nose and took a deep breath.
His face showed an expression of, “Here we go again,” as the Houston Texans marched downfield.
Allen had been in that situation far too many times in Reliant Stadium, a place that had become his personal nightmare factory. Four times Allen has traveled to Houston with the Buffalo Bills and he’s never left happy.
He’s left injured, lost twice on walk-off field goals and couldn’t guide a comeback win in the waning moments last year. With the Bills clinging to a 36-31 lead with 20 seconds left and the Texans in possession at the Buffalo 18-yard line, it looked perilous once again.
But then Greg Rousseau worked his way around Texans right tackle Trent Brown, wrapped his arms around quarterback C.J. Stroud and got just enough of his 11 ⅛-inch hand on the ball, causing it to dribble right to linebacker Terrel Bernard. Rousseau’s second strip-sack of the game ended Buffalo’s Houston problem, at least for now.
“You saw a lot of the conviction, everything we kind of talk about,” Joe Brady said after his first win as a head coach. “We didn’t care how pretty. There’s no such thing as an ugly win. You just find ways.”
No one should have been surprised the game went down to the wire, but it was hard to predict a shootout. Allen had never scored more than 20 points against the Texans and the offense was largely dysfunctional over the last two losses in Houston.
Yet the Bills scored more points (36), gained more total yards (409) and threw for more net yards (323) than the Texans allowed in any game last season. In fact, Allen’s 334 yards were the most allowed by Houston since Week 11 2024.
But it was how the Bills threw the ball. They went from being a dink and dunk team over the previous two seasons — with a career-low 7.1 air yards per attempt last season — to biting off big chunks. They had 10 passes of at least 15 yards, with four going to wide receiver D.J. Moore in his debut performance.
Most importantly, Brady’s “Everybody Eats” motto seems to be extinct. The three players who should receive the most targets each week — Moore (5 for 100), Dalton Kincaid (5 for 130) and Khalil Shakir (4 for 50) — accounted for 14 receptions for 280 yards.
And then the supporting cast was mixed in. It just so happened that — a play after Allen nearly foolishly threw the game away — he threw a frozen rope down the field to Joshua Palmer for a 34-yard go-ahead touchdown.
So often over the last two years, Allen and the Bills have talked about taking what the defense offered. In that game, Allen took what he wanted. He took chances and gave his receivers chances, especially with the game on the line.
And, oh by the way, Allen was only sacked twice a year after Houston sacked him a career-high eight times.
None of it means that’s how the Bills are going to play that way every week. It’s not sustainable over 17 games. But it’s encouraging that Brady was willing to be aggressive against the league’s top defense.
Perhaps that’s the difference between Brady and Sean McDermott. The Bills had two 96-yard touchdown drives, including the go-ahead score.
Near the end of the first half, down 14-10, Allen threw a jump ball to Kincaid in double coverage for a 38-yard gain and the Bills scored in just three plays. It was only Allen’s fourth career completion of over 20 yards on a first-down throw inside his 10-yard line.
“We love chunk plays,” Allen said. “That’s how you score 36 points. You give yourself the opportunity to score in four or five plays in a drive instead of long, methodical 13, 14, 15 plays. And that’s also a way to win football games. We don’t want to just try to live off the chunk plays. We want to be smart and we want to take the opportunities when they’re there.”
Sure, just as encouraging of an offensive performance as it was, there was plenty of concern over the defense’s outing in defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard’s debut. Stroud completed 68.4% of his passes and the Texans gained 381 total yards, controlling the ball for over 36 minutes.
And, yes, Houston gained 124 yards rushing. But it averaged 3.9 yards per career, an improvement from the Bills allowing 4.8 over the previous three seasons. And they hit Stroud nine times (five by Rousseau), with the pass rush showing up with sacks on the final two plays to close the game.
“I want the defense to be out there in a two-minute situation,” Brady said. “I want them to want that. It’s hard to score in a two-minute situation offensively. Make them earn every single yard. It wasn’t pretty, but when we needed them to get in those situations and get the ball out and not blink.”