Last season, the Houston Texans sealed a 23-19 victory against the Buffalo Bills, sacking Josh Allen eight times. And few believed that the Bills would be able to seek revenge this season. This was reflected in NFL Game Previews, when the majority of analysts picked the Texans over the Bills. Surprisingly, things turned in Buffalo’s favor. As they grabbed a 36-31 win, left tackle Dion Dawkins did not forget the analysts who had picked against the Bills.
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“Free energy,” came Dawkins’ sarcastic remark as he shared a screenshot of the Game Preview Picks page, suggesting that the NFL’s low expectations or lack of belief in the Bills are giving Buffalo extra motivation.
According to the screenshot, nine of the 10 NFL.com analysts picked Houston. Only Brandon Perna predicted a 21-10 victory by Buffalo. Besides him, others, including Tom Grossi, predicted Houston to take home the victory, despite Buffalo finishing the preseason 3-0 under first-year head coach Joe Brady.
Buffalo also entered as a 1.5-point favorite (-1.5, -105), while the game’s over/under was set at 44.5. The Bills were -118 on the moneyline, compared with +100 for the Texans. But their analysis might have been influenced by how Josh Allen has historically struggled when traveling to Houston. Entering the game, Allen was 0-4 in Houston, while his career passer rating against the Texans was 74.0.
Buffalo’s offseason changes also gave the analysts reasons for concern. Doubts prevailed offensively, particularly along the interior of its offensive line. The Bills replaced David Edwards with Alec Anderson and also lost offensive line coach Aaron Kromer, who helped establish their effective rushing attack.
Defensively, too, the alterations were massive. Buffalo moved away from Sean McDermott’s zone-heavy, bend-but-don’t-break system toward a more aggressive, single-high approach. But it required one game for Buffalo to prove that they are bigger than the doubts.
Allen broke his curse against the Texans. He totaled 334 passing yards and two touchdowns, adding two more scores on the ground to finally earn a win. The performance also gave Allen the NFL record for most games with at least two passing touchdowns and two rushing touchdowns, moving him ahead of Steve Young and Cam Newton.
Buffalo’s offense came alive in the second quarter, putting up 21 points compared with Houston’s 14. The scoring remained back-and-forth for much of the game, with neither team able to pull away until the Bills took control late.
James Cook racked up 57 rushing yards on 13 carries and added 12 receiving yards on three catches. Dalton Kincaid was Buffalo’s top receiver with five receptions for 130 yards, while DJ Moore contributed five catches for 100 yards and a touchdown. Joshua Palmer also found the end zone on a 34-yard reception.
That said, before he could take to social media to call out the NFL analysts, Dawkins was captured right after the game. In the video shared by Spectrum News 1 analyst Andy Young, Dawkins had a message for the naysayers.
“What they gotta say now?” he asked as he headed to the locker room.