As much success as Josh Allen has enjoyed during his career as a Buffalo Bill, there’s been curiosity about what he could accomplish in a pass-aggressive offence with the freedom to do with the ball as he likes.
On Sunday we found out, as the Bills rallied late to earn a wild 36-31 win over the Texans and their first victory in Houston in nearly 20 years.
Allen had one of the most impressive throwing days of his career, putting up more passing yards (334) and points on the Texans than they surrendered in any game all of last season, when they had the league’s best defence.
It was a performance that validated speculation throughout training camp that Joe Brady taking over as head coach from Sean McDermott would mean some of the guard rails would come off the Bills offence.
Two seasons ago, Allen won the MVP on a team without a true No. 1 receiver. A year ago, the man with the golden arm handed the ball off at a higher rate than any quarterback in the NFL.
Against Houston, he had five completions of beyond 30 yards - three to tight end Dalton Kincade - plus touchdown passes of 43 yards to D.J. Moore and 34 yards to Josh Palmer for the winner in what was his first touchdown as a Bill and Allen’s 26th career fourth-quarter come-from-behind victory.
On Sunday, Allen averaged 16.7 yards per completion, far outperforming his efficiency from a year ago when he averaged 10.55 yards per completion, and from 2024 when it was 12.15 yards per completion.
The Bills opened the game with a heavy dose of reigning NFL rushing champion James Cook but quickly pivoted away from that once the Texans began to limit last season’s NFL rushing champion.
Nothing demonstrated the efficiency of Allen’s day more than two 96-yard touchdown drives, one before the end of each half, including the game-winner.
A ninety-six-yard drive in the NFL can often eat up six, seven or even eight minutes of game clock.
Allen engineered two of them in less than 2&1/2 minutes – combined -- on just 10 plays, averaging more than 25 yards per completion during those two drives, an astounding feat even by his own high standards.
It was just the fifth time in NFL history that a team had two 96-yard touchdown drives in the same game, and safe to say the other four instances ate up substantially more clock.
The Bills quickly pivoted away from the run game Sunday when the Texans began to limit Cook’s production. They held him to just 57 yards, which made it challenging for them to keep their offence on schedule along the ground.
The aerial show wouldn’t have been possible without the Bills’ tight-end-heavy protection schemes protecting Allen and limiting the Texans to just two sacks on the day, after Houston had taken him down eight times in their visit to Houston last November.
A healthy Kincaid and Moore, who joined the Bills in an off-season trade from Chicago, finished the game with five catches each, for 130 and 100 yards respectively.
Kincaid, a first-round pick from 2023, has flashed greatness during his first three NFL seasons but has been limited by injuries that have either kept him out of games or put him on a “pitch count.”
His first catch over corner Kamari Lassiter was a thing of beauty, twisting his body upwards towards the ball to haul in a ball Allen tossed while on the run.
His other catches demonstrated the smoothness of his route running and the potential he brings to help Buffalo effectively stretch the field.
The same can be said for Moore, who took what he’d put on display throughout training camp and executed against a team with the best tandem of corners in the NFL with Lassiter and Derek Stingley Jr.
Allen concentrated his throws towards Moore, Kincaid and Khalil Shakir, but turned to Palmer for the winning score on back-to-back throws, the first of which was nearly intercepted by Lassiter, on his only two targets of the game.
The Bills were trailing 31-30 and on the edge of field goal range on their final drive, but Brady confirmed after the game he had given his quarterback the go-ahead to take the knock-out punch if it was there.
Defensively, it was a less-stunning debut for the Bills’ new defensive co-ordinator Jim Leonhard’s unit, with Houston receiver Nico Collins having his way with Christian Benford during a first half in which, at one point, Houston scored touchdowns on three of four drives.
There were breakdowns in communication during the second half, or as safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson put it after the game, some “bumps on film.”
But two of Buffalo’s three sacks on the day came after Houston had crossed the 10-yard line as they drove towards what would have been a game-winning score in the final minute.
The second of those was the second strip-sack of the day for outside linebacker Greg Rousseau, who had one of the best overall games of his career.
Despite the breakdowns, it was possible to see pieces that are in place for better performances down the road.
This Bills season arrived with more anticipation and more questions than any in this era, given the changes that took place this off-season.
One week into the 2026 season, the Bills achieved a happy trip home from Houston for the first time in two decades and have to be feeling awfully good about what may lie ahead, starting Thursday night against the Detroit Lions.
