The Bills Win in Houston, but should we be worried about the Defense?

The Bills won in Houston 36-31, with Josh Allen finally beating a building that had owned him. On today’s episode of 1st and 5, Dave and Greg broke down the game, including:

• What Josh Allen’s first Houston win really means
• The aggressive Joe Brady offense that finally let Josh air it out
• Dalton Kincaid’s monster game and a receiving corps that changes everything
• The Keon Coleman question that won’t go away
• Real concerns about the defense and the pass rush
• Where Jim Leonhard should call the game from

Josh Allen Finally Wins in Houston

Josh Allen had never won in Houston, an 0-4 hole that traces back to the 2019 playoff loss, and the Bills as a team hadn’t won there since 2006. Here’s what we expected from Allen and the Bills heading into the matchup. Greg’s read on Josh is that he wants to slay every dragon in front of him, and the relief was visible when the game ended. Dave caught the lighter side, with Josh opening his press conference on a sarcastic “woo-hoo, we like playing here.” That monkey is off his back going into a short week.

The Aggressive Offense Everyone Was Waiting For

For two years, the question was whether Joe Brady would ever let Josh Allen cut it loose. On Sunday, he did. Greg loved the whole approach, the deep shots, the willingness to throw 20 yards downfield instead of settling for a checkdown, and especially how much Buffalo moved the pocket to take one side of Houston’s pass rush out of the play.

Dave pointed to the game plan that kept Josh upright against a front that sacked him eight times a year ago, right down to Texans edge Will Anderson admitting afterward that Houston had prepared better than it played.

The numbers backed it up. Josh threw for more than 360 yards on just 29 attempts, the Bills piled up 409 total yards against a defense that never gave up more than 360 all of last season, and they hit ten explosive plays after Houston had allowed only eight across the entire previous year.

Dalton Kincaid Changes the Math

Dalton Kincaid went for 135 yards on a day nobody saw coming, and Greg and Dave both raved about a healthy version of him, the kind of tight end who has to be respected on every snap and opens the field for everyone else. Dave noted it was the first time the Bills had a 100-yard receiver and a 100-yard tight end in the same game since Andre Reed and Pete Metzelaars in 1992.

That is the DJ Moore effect, too. Greg pointed out that Moore didn’t have a single 100-yard game all of last season in Chicago and got there in his Buffalo debut. With Moore, Kincaid, Khalil Shakir, and Dawson Knox all on the field, Josh Allen finally has the kind of weapon room the Bills have chased for nine years. Before the game, we looked at how Buffalo’s new group of weapons could change the matchup.

The Keon Coleman Question Won’t Go Away

Not everything was clean. Greg came away frustrated with Keon Coleman, who kept getting pressed at the line and couldn’t separate, and he went as far as saying the Keon experiment is over for him. His worry is that defenses will start isolating Keon and daring the Bills to throw his way, which quietly takes a weapon off the board.

Dave was more patient. He credited a very good Texans secondary, pointed out that Keon still sprinted out as a decoy on the Josh Palmer touchdown, which he read as real maturity, and said Keon’s number will get called eventually. His bigger takeaway was Palmer, who made two catches late, including the deep ball, and looked like the downfield threat the Bills signed him to be.

The Defense Gave Them Plenty to Sweat

The defense is where the mood turned. Greg said he felt like Frank Costanza, hating to be the negative guy after a win but having “a lot of problems with you people,” aka the defense. The pass rush only got home when C.J. Stroud held the ball, the secondary had a couple of costly miscommunications, and Dee Alford got torched at a bad time. His biggest gripe was Damar Hamlin taking legit defensive snaps, including a safety blitz that got picked up at the line.

Dave’s concern was that the pass-rush issues aren’t a young-player problem, since most of that group has been in Buffalo for years. He and Greg agreed on the bright spots. Greg Rousseau was a disruptor all game, Ed Oliver dominated the run, and rookie Deone Walker flashed with a fourth-quarter sack, while IGB’s instinctual break on the ball was exactly what they want from the young corners.

Both preached patience with Jim Leonhard in his first year calling plays, while flagging the Chargers game as the real test after Arizona wrecked that offensive line. Leonhard’s new defensive scheme was one of the biggest questions heading into the season.

Dave and Greg split on where Jim Leonhard should call the game from. Greg wants him in the booth, where he can study the film and make cleaner adjustments in a quiet space. Dave sees both sides, noting Leonhard chose the sideline to stay close to a very young defense, the same spot Sean McDermott called from in 2023 during his best defensive season, with John Fox up top as a veteran set of eyes.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

In the show’s good, bad, and ugly segment, Greg’s bad was the bubble screens that keep showing up, including one that nearly became a pick-six at the goal line. He wants Brady to just let Josh throw it. They joked that it’s now death, taxes, and Joe Brady bubble screens. Dave’s bad was Dion Dawkins whiffing on the block that sank a fourth-down run.

Their ugly was the near-turnovers that could have flipped the game, the James Cook fumble the Bills recovered, and Josh Allen’s near-interception on the Palmer touchdown. Those were the breaks that went Buffalo’s way this time, and both know that won’t always be the case.

1-0, with the Lions coming in on a short Thursday turnaround to open the new Highmark Stadium. So which is the real Bills team? The offense that dropped 36 in Houston, or the defense that let the Texans hang 31?

Wrapping Up

What stuck out most about the game to you: the offensive improvement or the defensive improvement needed?

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