Bills’ Josh Allen faces his kryptonite in Texans’ defense, can he finally solve them?

Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen must be on NFL commissioner Roger Goodell’s bad side. The league gave the 2024 NFL MVP his bogeyman to kick off the 2026 season in Week 1: the Houston Texans. 

Allen is 0-4 on the road in Houston, including the playoffs, with just two total touchdowns in four starts. Those four defeats are tied for the most losses by a visiting quarterback at the Texans all-time, along with former AFC South passers Kerry Collins and Blake Bortles. 

Allen, whose 301 total touchdowns are the most in a player’s first nine seasons in NFL history, enters this season trying to figure out how to survive against the Texans’ All-Pro edge rusher duo of Will Anderson Jr. and Danielle Hunter. Anderson Jr. and Hunter have been the NFL’s most prolific pass-rush duo since 2024, leading the league among all-teammate duos with 50.0 combined sacks. Four-and-a-half of those sacks between Anderson Jr. (2.5) and Hunter (2.0) have come against Allen. 

Each of the last two times Allen has faced the Texans’ star-studded defense with Anderson Jr., Hunter, All-Pro cornerback Derek Stingley Jr., Pro Bowl cornerback Kamari Lassiter, Pro Bowl linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair and Pro Bowl safety Calen Bullock, he’s been shredded. In 2024’s contest, Allen posted a career-low 30% completion rate (9-for-30), the worst by any quarterback with 30-plus throws in a game since 1992, per CBS Sports Research. In 2025, the Texans sacked Allen a career-worst eight times, with Anderson Jr. (2.5) and Hunter (2.0) becoming the first duo with multiple sacks each on Allen in the same game. 

So why has Houston vexed Allen so? Here’s a closer look at why and what needs to happen for Allen to turn the tide against the Texans. 

* Worst of career

Why the Texans shut Allen down the last two seasons

The common talking point for slowing down a dual-threat quarterback like Allen is to keep him in the pocket and make him one-dimensional by taking away his ability to scramble. That’s easier said than done with Allen, but the Texans are able to do that thanks to having two All-Pro bookends on the line of scrimmage in Anderson Jr. and Hunter. This year, they beefed up the interior of their defensive line by drafting Ohio State defensive tackle Kayden McDonald, the 2026 NFL Draft’s top DT prospect, in the second round of the draft in April. 

Since Houston can keep Allen trapped in the pocket with its front four alone, it doesn’t have to sacrifice resources in coverage. Thirteen of the 15 pressures and seven of the eight sacks the Texans racked up on Allen in 2025 came when sending four or fewer pass rushers, per NFL Pro. Houston didn’t blitz a single play against Allen in their 23-19 victory in Week 12 last season. Not blitzing allowed the Texans to use man coverage on 42.2% of their dropbacks against Allen that night, their second-highest rate in a game last season, per NFL Pro. 

Allen struggled against Stingley, Lassiter, Bullock and safety Jalen Pitre in man coverage, completing just 5 of 11 throws for 45 yards and one interception. He fared much better against the Texans’ zone, completing 19 of 23 throws for 208 yards and an interception against zone coverage. It also aided Houston’s cause that they weren’t afraid to go to man coverage against any of Allen’s wide receivers, with Khalil Shakir and Keon Coleman being Buffalo’s scariest options a year ago. 

The hope for Allen and Buffalo

Buffalo hopes that the Bills’ new No. 1 wide receiver DJ Moore can open things up for Allen against Houston’s stifling man coverage. That option wasn’t available to him in his previous two matchups. That’s despite Moore being fresh off career lows in catches (50) and receiving yards (682) with the Chicago Bears in 2025. However, when Moore last worked with new Bills head coach Joe Brady from 2020 to 2021 (with Brady as his Carolina Panthers offensive coordinator), he racked up 2,350 yards receiving, the seventh-most in the NFL. Brady’s ability to unlock the full potential of Moore’s game is pretty much Allen’s and the Bills’ only hope.

Everything else is pretty much the same for both Buffalo’s offense and Houston’s defense, with the exception of the Bills’ trade for Moore and the Texans’ free agency acquisitions of safety Reed Blankenship and edge rusher Jadeveon Clowney. Bills right tackle Spencer Brown will once again see plenty of Anderson, who recorded five of his eight pressures and one of his two-and-a-half sacks against him in this game last season. 

If Moore can’t give Allen much, much more to work with, Sunday afternoon in Houston will feel like Groundhog Day for the Bills’ 2024 NFL MVP-winning quarterback.