2024 Week 5: Bills 20, Texans 23
The Bills (3-2) dropped a game they should have won, but Josh Allen was allergic to completing passes. Buffalo had two touchdown opportunities in the first half that he misfired on, one of them a rare underthrow. Buffalo is allowing the Jets and Miami to stay relevant in the AFC East title race. They could have put a good distance between themselves and those two teams by winning this but didn’t take advantage.
The Texans improved to (4-1) but I haven’t been impressed by them so far. The difference between them winning and losing is solely CJ Stroud. The rest of the roster construction isn’t really “special”.
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QB Report:
- Josh Allen (9/30 for 131 yards, 1 TD, 4 rushes for 54 yards) was very bad in this game. One of the worst performances of his career and that’s saying something… he looked like rookie Josh Allen, not MVP candidate Josh Allen. 30% completion percentage in this game, 55% the week prior in the Baltimore loss. Allen’s passing totals, efficiency, rushing totals, and TDs are all way down this year. Last year we saw something similar happen to Patrick Mahomes, Allen was fading in the passing game at the same time, but his rushing ability was able to hide that fact. Allen isn’t running nearly as much this year and we have yet another Active-QB-Mount-Rushmore player falling from grace.
RB Report:
- Cam Akers (9-42-1, 2 catches for 5 yards) was getting a lot of the work early on for Houston but as the game wore on and the Texans lead was starting to give way, Dare Ogunbowale (15-30-0, 6 catches for 57 yards) was the one to step up. Ogunbowale is a speedy back who spent much of his career as a backup/returner and was never given much of a shot. He was given one this week and took advantage in the passing game, I wouldn’t be surprised if he was a focus next week if Joe Mixon is out again.
WR Report:
- There were only 9 completed passes on the Bills side of the ball, and the most catches were two. Guys were getting open but Allen couldn’t hit his mark on almost any throw, I felt embarrassed for him. Khalil Shakir was out and in his one absence, it appears he’s the key to this offense… I think it’s a failure on OC Joe Brady’s end more than anything else.
- Dalton Kincaid (2-34-0/6) SHOULD have been the winner with Shakir out and he was close to having a huge day, but Allen missed him multiple times. He could have had 5 catches for 100 yards and a score at half if Allen was on his game.
- Nico Collins (2-78-1/2) hurt his hamstring and didn’t return, which I had hoped would bring Tank Dell (4-38-0/4, 1 rush for -5 yards) back to relevancy. That lasted for a whopping one drive. I have no idea what happened between Dell and Stroud in the offseason but the killer connection they had is gone.
image source: (AP Photo/Eric Gay)