{"id":433561,"date":"2026-09-12T05:00:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T05:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/433561\/"},"modified":"2026-09-12T05:00:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T05:00:10","slug":"bills-allen-seek-to-end-0-4-skid-in-houston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/433561\/","title":{"rendered":"Bills, Allen seek to end 0-4 skid in Houston –"},"content":{"rendered":"

Local Sports<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

AP File Photo
\nBuffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen, center, Frank Gore Jr. (20) and head coach Joe Brady, right rear, celebrate a successful two-point conversion against the Pittsburgh Steelers in the second half of a preseason game in Orchard Park on Aug. 27.<\/p>\n

HOUSTON — Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills travel to Houston to Sunday to open their season against the Texans with the quarterback looking to finally break through in a place that has never been good to him.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a game between two playoff teams from last season. Many expect both to be among the top teams in the AFC again this year.<\/p>\n

Allen is 0-4 in games at Houston, including a wild-card playoff loss in 2020 and his most recent performance in the city may have been his worst.<\/p>\n

Playing without quarterback C.J. Stroud, Houston got a 23-19 win last November with a suffocating defensive performance. The Texans tied a franchise record by sacking Allen a career-high eight times with 4\u00bd coming from Will Anderson and Danielle Hunter. Calen Bullock forced three turnovers, picking off Allen twice, with the last one sealing the victory with 24 seconds left.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose guys are gonna be ready to play,\u201d Allen said. \u201cThey got after us last year, there\u2019s no secret about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Allen is 67 of 127 for 722 yards with a touchdown, two interceptions and a lost fumble in four games at Houston. His struggles include a career-worst 30% completion rate in a 23-20 loss in 2024.<\/p>\n

Despite that history, players and coaches from both teams agree that history doesn\u2019t have any bearing on this week\u2019s game. Sunday will be the head coaching debut for Buffalo\u2019s Joe Brady, who was promoted from offensive coordinator after Sean McDermott was fired after nine seasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s year one for us and there\u2019s nothing that we\u2019re going into this year with the mindset of, oh man, this is what\u2019s happened in the past year, right,\u201d Brady said. \u201cLike a lot of these guys haven\u2019t even been here, so I don\u2019t think it\u2019s anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a message that Houston coach DeMeco Ryans is also preaching to his team this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t hang our hat on past success,\u201d he said. \u201cPast success is not going to automatically guarantee you future success. We have to go out and we have to earn it. That\u2019s one thing that Josh and his offense is going to make you do.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the Texans enter their 25th season as the only team to have never reached a conference championship game, they know that Sunday\u2019s game will be their first test if they hope to end that drought.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m feeling like Sunday is going to be that AFC championship-type feel,\u201d Anderson said.<\/p>\n

Need to know<\/p>\n

Buffalo (13-6) at Houston (13-6)<\/p>\n

When\/where to watch: Sunday, 1 p.m. EDT, CBS.<\/p>\n

Latest odds: Bills by 1\u00bd.<\/p>\n

Last meeting: Texans beat Bills 23-19 on Nov. 20, 2025 in Houston.<\/p>\n

Series record: Texans lead 8-5.<\/p>\n

Matchup to watch<\/p>\n

After last season\u2019s eight-sack debacle for the Bills, all eyes will be on whether the offensive line can protect Allen against Houston\u2019s fearsome pass rush. Allen shouldered the blame for some of those hits in that game saying he took some \u201cbad sacks\u201d and could have played better. Brady said everyone knows that what happened last year wasn\u2019t acceptable and they\u2019re focused on doing better this time around.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope all of us have learned from that and we know they are going to get everything and more from them as well,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Houston returns both Anderson and Hunter after the duo combined for 27 sacks last season. And back with the Texans this season is Jadeveon Clowney, the top overall pick by Houston in 2014, who had 8\u00bd sacks for the Cowboys last season.<\/p>\n

Stats and stuff<\/p>\n

— The Bills have won 11 or more games in each of the past six seasons, joining New England (2010-19), Indianapolis (2003-09), Kansas City (2018-24) and Dallas (1976-81) as the only other teams to do so in the Super Bowl era.<\/p>\n

— The Texans opened last season 0-3 before bouncing back to make the playoffs for a third straight season.<\/p>\n

— Last season, the Bills became the NFL\u2019s first team since the 1985 Chicago Bears to lead the league in carries (547), yards rushing (2,714) and rushing touchdowns (30).<\/p>\n

— Last season, the Texans led the NFL in yards allowed (277.2), were second to the Seahawks in points allowed (17.4) and their plus-17 turnover differential ranked second.<\/p>\n

— Allen has a 40-7 record in regular-season starts when not committing a turnover, and is 48-32 when throwing an interception or losing a fumble.<\/p>\n

— Houston traded for David Montgomery this offseason after ranking 22nd in the NFL by averaging 108.9 yards rushing last season. Montgomery had 158 carries for 716 yards and eight touchdowns for the Lions in 2025.<\/p>\n

— The Bills added WR DJ Moore in a trade with Chicago in March. Moore, who has had four seasons with at least 1,100 yards receiving, had a career-low 682 yards receiving last season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Local Sports AP File Photo Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen, center, Frank Gore Jr. (20) and head coach…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":433562,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57],"class_list":["post-433561","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\/433561","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=433561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/433562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}