Players to watch: Buffalo Bills vs Houston Texans

After a great showing last week from the Buffalo Bills, they take on the Houston Texans. The Texans have had a tough season so far. They are 0-3 to start the year and have lost their starting QB to injury for at least a couple weeks. Even with the Texans having a tough time doesn’t mean they are a team to take lightly. They still have some quality players that can have an impact on the game.

Texans Passing vs Bills Secondary

Their biggest offensive weapon is Brandin Cooks, a wide receiver who has had five 1,000-yard seasons in his career. This is another big week for the secondary. Most of the yards that the Texans have gained this year were in the air (686). Tre White will draw the assignment for most of the game covering Cooks. The main threat with Cooks is his speed. He ran a 4.33 40-yard-dash at the combine. Since he has come into the league, he has been a deep threat wide receiver.

Expect to see a lot of over-the-top help either in cover two or cover four. Micah Hyde and Jaquan Johnson will have to play solid help defense over the top to ensure that the Texans can’t have any easy long touchdowns this week. Other than Cooks, the next best receivers on the team are the Tight Ends. This will also be a split responsibility between the safeties and the linebackers. Hyde and Johnson will be key players this week because they will almost always be responsible in some way for the best players on the Texans offense. 

Big passing week means more targets for Sanders

The Texans defense allows almost 270 passing yards a game this year. This means the Bills gameplan should be pass-heavy again this week. If Josh Allen can continue with the momentum that he picked up last week, the offense will have a great week. The main player to watch on the Bills offense is Emmanuel Sanders. Last week against the Football Team, he had a field day, putting up two touchdowns and almost 100 yards.

From what we have seen this year, Allen seems to be getting comfortable with him. Sanders has not seen under six targets in all three of the games this year, and last week he and Allen were able to link up on a beautiful deep ball. If they can continue to build chemistry and keep linking up downfield, this will be a great week for Sanders. Expect him to again have over six targets this week and I expect him to score another touchdown. 

Overall, I really like the matchups that the Bills have this week against the Texans. It should be a fun game to watch, and hopefully, another Bills win.