ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) \u2013 The Buffalo Bills will travel to Houston to kick the season off against the Texans.<\/p>\n
Buffalo Bills gameday basics:Teams: Buffalo Bills (0-0) and Houston Texans (0-0)Date: Sunday, Sep. 13Time: 1 p.m.Location: Reliant Stadium | Houston, TXNetwork: CBSGame Preview<\/p>\n
The 2026 NFL season is here! The Buffalo Bills, with first-year head coach Joe Brady, will travel to Houston to take on the Texans in a battle of perennial playoff teams. Both teams went 12-5 a season ago, and won a playoff game each before being bounced in the AFC Divisional Round. On paper, they\u2019re sort of opposites of one another. The Bills look to, yet again, boast one of the league\u2019s top offenses, piloted by 2024 league MVP Josh Allen, while the defensive side of the ball . The Texans allowed just 295 points a year ago, the second fewest in the NFL, but their offense was pedestrian as third-year signal caller, CJ Stroud, struggled.<\/p>\n
Both teams\u2019 outlooks are bright for 2026\u2013one dominant side of the ball each with a recent memory of measured success. <\/p>\n
Years Past<\/p>\n
The Texans are 8-5 against the Bills all time, with a 7-2 mark since 2009. In fact, against Josh Allen, Houston\u2019s held the upper hand, four-wins-to-one, and has made the Bills quarterback look lost at times. Last season, Allen threw two interceptions in a 23-19 loss. The year prior, he completed just nine passes on 30 attempts in a 23-20 loss. Allen\u2019s woes in Houston date back to 2018, his rookie year, when he got injured in a 20-13 loss. In his sophomore campaign, Allen and the Bills surrendered a 16-0 second-half lead in the playoffs to lose, 22-19. In fact, Allen\u2019s lone win against the Texans came in 40-0 blowout back in 2021. <\/p>\n
But here\u2019s the thing\u2026A lot of people are going to harp on these stats this week. Yes, the Houston Texans boast one of the league\u2019s toughest and deepest defenses. No quarterback should have a great track record against a DeMeco Ryans offense. But, I think Allen\u2019s struggles against the Bills are overblown. The first two years of his career, where Allen got injured then choked in the playoffs, he wasn\u2019t particularly great against most teams anyway. So to me, this history of Allen struggling is really just two games, which is the second weakest sample size that someone can come up with. Is Buffalo\u2019s offense going to struggle against Houston? Probably, their defense is incredible. That doesn\u2019t mean the Bills can\u2019t win or that Josh Allen, one of the league\u2019s best quarterbacks, won\u2019t figure it out.<\/p>\n
Players to Watch: Dion Dawkins & Spencer Brown<\/p>\n
The Bills have struggled the last two years against the Texans mainly because Houston\u2019s pass rush is elite. Allen was sacked eight times in 2025. Will Anderson Jr. and Danielle Hunter make up a dynamic duo on the edge that\u2019ll once again ask a lot of Buffalo\u2019s offensive tackles: Dion Dawkins and Spencer Brown.<\/p>\n
Predictions<\/p>\n
Ian Mills, Sports (0-0): Bills \u2013 24, Texans \u2013 20<\/p>\n
Mat Mlodzinski, Sports (0-0): Bills \u2013 27, Texans \u2013 20<\/p>\n
Cailey Thalman, Sports (0-0): <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) \u2013 The Buffalo Bills will travel to Houston to kick the season off against the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":428964,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57],"class_list":["post-428963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=428963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428963\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/428964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}