Buffalo Bills’ Offense OVERMATCHED by Houston Texans’ Defense | Josh Allen Sacked 8 Times in Loss

Buffalo Bills’ Offense OVERMATCHED by Houston Texans’ Defense | Josh Allen Sacked 8 Times in Loss

The Bills got beat up in Houston. My reaction to the disappointment is coming your way today on Locked on Bills. You are Locked on Bills, your daily Buffalo Bills podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. What’s up, Bills Mafia? It’s Joe Marino, author of the Herd Mentality Substack, co-host of the Locked On NFL Scouting Podcast, co-host of the NFL First Read Podcast, and I’m your host of Locked On Bills. Locked on Bills is a proud part of the Locked On Podcast Network, now the number one sports podcast network. Want to thank you for making Locked On Bills your first listen every day. And a big welcome and shout out to our everydayers. You know who you are. Those of you who never miss a single episode, I appreciate y’all being here very, very much. Today’s episode is brought to you by Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account, and use code locked on NFL for $20 off your first purchase. Well, folks, welcome in the Buffalo Bills lost to the Houston Texans 23-19 and fall to 7-4 on the season. Very frustrating loss. The Bills made tons of mistakes. It felt like they were overmatched at times, yet they still had a good chance to win this football game and couldn’t get it done. There’s a lot of questions, a lot of worthy questions about this football team and their consistency and their capacity. And ultimately, there are very real limitations with the Buffalo Bills that make it tough for them to perform consistently well. It’s very disappointing to be at this point. And it absolutely feels like the Bills are falling behind in the AFC. And so, we will talk about this game. We’ll talk some big picture stuff as well, but we got to get into the offense. It was an awful, awful day for the Buffalo Bills offense. Some really, really frustrating sequences. And I absolutely recognize how great Houston’s defense is. They are a phenomenal, phenomenal group. Give them credit. They played great. They’re a great defense. The Bills offense struggled big time. And I want to kind of just go through the drives and highlight just some really bad sequences that are prohibitive to winning football games. Now, obviously, you loved how it started. 10 plays, 81 yards, you get a touchdown, the 45 yard James Cook touchdown. We love that. Well, you respond to your touchdown with a three and out and you get six yards on first down and then it’s minus two to Shakir on the bubble screen that everyone’s ready for now, which gets you to a third and six and then Josh Allen scrambles for two yards and the Bills punt. Then you get a field goal and this is a very frustrating field goal because the Bills were first and 10 from the Houston 14. First and 10 from the 14. Your first down play is a minus two yardd run to Ty Johnson. Then Josh Allen takes a 10yd loss on second down to make it third and 22. you ultimately throw an incomplete pass and you kick a field goal. So you go from first and 10 at the 14 to fourth and 22. It’s bad. Then you throw an interception on the very first play of the next drive. And what’s frustrating about that is it’s right after Houston has their best offensive drive. They go 12 plays, 77 yards. They take almost 6 minutes off the clock and on the first possession or the first play of the following possession, you give the ball right back to Houston. Now, credit to the defense, they held him to three points, but that’s a very frustrating sequence to have your worst defensive series of the game and then put the defense right back out there. And I’ll be honest with you, I really didn’t take much exception with the interception. That’s a heck of a play by the linebacker, Aziz Al Shier. I saw what Josh saw. He He was leaning towards driving on a outbreaker and he’s able to very quickly not close and puts his hands up and tips the ball in the air and makes a play like whatever that that happens. But the timing was horrible. You put your defense right back out there. Now you hold him to three, which is great. And then you get the Ray Davis kick return for a touchdown. Love that, right? Love that. And then the end of half for the Bills offense. You come out of the third quarter and the opening drive, the Bills go five plays and punt. Josh Allen is sacked for an 18yd loss on third and 16. The next drive, you wind up punting. You go you go with a punt here on a third and one play. Josh Allen is sacked for a five-yard loss. Then you go three plays and fumble. Josh Allen hits a throw on third and three for 13 yards, but Khalil Shakir fumbles the ball. Then you get to the fourth quarter and this was one of my most frustrating moments. You go turnover on downs on that opening drive of the fourth quarter where you have a 20 yardd run from James Cook and then you proceed to run it four more times with James Cook and you get to a fourth and one where James Cook is trying to get out of the game. He’s obviously tired. He had the 20 yard run and then ran it three more times. So four runs in a row. He’s trying to get out of the game and then you lose two yards on fourth and one. And I think it was more about Osiris Torrance on that play than it was James Cook. But just a terrible sequence. Points are at a premium. You can’t leave him on the board. You were first and 10 from the 32. You came away with no points. Then you get a field goal on the next drive where you’re first and 10 at the 20. You’re sacked on first down. You can’t overcome it. Then you have the game-winning drive opportunity and you overcome a fourth and 27 with a really fun play the lateral that you get 44 yards on and then it comes down to, you know, Gabe Davis can’t get the second foot down. You’re fourth and one. Deion Dawkins false start. You’re fourth and six. The play call comes in late on a fourth and six. You’re out of sorts in a high leverage moment. Josh Allen throws a pick and Josh Allen’s, you know, on the sideline talking to Mitch Trabiscy saying, “What are we doing?” And in the post game, he’s talking about how it was rushed. The play call came in and he probably needed to call a timeout. Like when you’re in the most critical moment of the game, your operation is completely unsettled. Your franchise left tackle goes false start on fourth and one. You’re not getting the play call in in a timely manner on fourth and six like with the game on the line. There is no there’s no other play. You don’t get it. It’s over. The Bills once again in a end of game moment where you got to have it. They’re out of sorts. Their their operation lets them down. Just a bad day for this offense. You can’t finish drives. You can’t pass protect. You can’t stay on schedule in the run game. Houston’s playing their top down defense. They’re fast. They’re physical. They overmatched the Bills. You scored 19 points, but thank God you got a kick return for a touchdown and a 45 yard touchdown run. The Bills might have just had a couple of field goals to show for this game. Offensive line’s getting beat up. Josh Allen is sacked eight times. He’s hit 12 more. The offense was completely out of sorts. You just didn’t have the right stuff. And again, I get it. Houston’s defense is really good. I didn’t expect the Bills to go out there and play clean offense and have 400 yards and 30 points. That was never my expectation. But when you did have opportunities to finish drives, you failed every single time. 0 for two in the red zone. And there’s just these are just moments against this type of team in that type of game where you’re not winning the field position battle. When you have opportunities to make plays, you got to make them. You can’t f Khil Shakir. can’t fumble. You cannot fumble there, dude. You got to have your your p your operation correct on a fourth in game and it wasn’t. It’s a bad day. It’s a bad loss and whatever. Like I like I said, I expected Houston’s defense to look really good, but when you have opportunities, you got to get it done. and you couldn’t get it done. All right, let’s uh continue this conversation here on the other side of it by focusing more on the defense and talk about how the defense actually did keep them in the game for as frustrating as it was to start. They gave him a chance there in the second half. We’ll talk about that here next. Folks, be sure to stick with me. This episode is brought to you by Prize Picks. You and I make decisions every day, but on Prize Picks, being right can get you paid. Don’t miss any of the excitement of this sports season. Whether you’re following the NFL, NBA, or both, there’s no better time to jump in on the action. If you haven’t tried it yet, prize picks is the simplest way to play. You just pick more or or less on at least two player stats, and if you get them right, you win. It takes less than 60 seconds to make your lineup, and you can play anywhere that prize picks operates, including California, Texas, and Georgia. I’ve using prize picks during both Football Sundays and NBA tip offs. It just keeps every game exciting. And I love the injury reboot feature. If one of your players leaves early with an injury, the injury reboot feature will save your lineup from a loss. So check it out. Download the prize picks app today and use code lockdown NFL to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. That’s code lockdown NFL for $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup prize picks. It’s good to be right. Welcome back, folks. The Bills fall to the Texans 23-9. They sit at 7 and4 on the season. The roller coaster of the season, right? You look bad against the Bucks, you beat the te the excuse me, you look bad against the Texans. You beat the Bucks by two scorers. You get smoked by the Dolphins. You beat the Chiefs. You smoke the Panthers. You get beat by the Falcons. I mean, it’s just uh not a consistent football team. That’s what it is. It’s not a consistent football team. You just don’t know what you’re going to get. One thing I’ll say about this game is for as frustrating as this defense looked early in the game, they absolutely kept them in it. Now, obviously, I don’t love giving up 20 points in the first half. And, you know, you gave up a good amount of rushing production in the first half. You gave up some explosive passing plays. But let’s be honest, the defense is the only reason the Bills had a chance to win this game. In the second half, they held Houston to 35 yards and three points. Houston had five drives in the second half. They punted four times and they got a field goal. And why did they get a field goal? Because Khil Shakir fumbled and gave the ball to Houston at the Bills 22. I mean, they might not not have scored in the second half. And on the on four of those on three of those four punts, they went three and out. The Bills defense was lights out in the second half. Lights out. They gave them a chance. I kept on just waiting for Houston to open up a two-possession lead, in which case I knew there was no chance the Bills could win the game because I knew they weren’t going to score twice. But they never did. They never did. The defense gave him a chance. The defense is certainly overmatched in some ways. They gave him a chance in this game. The offense could not get it done. And when you look at the four losses that the Bills have taken this year, the offense has been horrible. The Bills scored 20 against New England and turned it over three times. They scored 14 against Atlanta and turned it over twice. They scored 13 against Miami and no points until like the fourth quarter and turned it over three times. They scored 19 against Houston and turned it over three times. Like the offense is the unit that’s letting this football team down in a big way. The defense held Houston to 15 first downs. Houston went two of 12 for third on third downs. They only had 261 total yards on 12 drives. The defense gave him a chance. Absolutely gave him a chance. And the offense couldn’t finish routinely. And when you look at the reality of this team, the 2025 Buffalo Bills, they’re an inconsistent and sloppy offense. Now, they’re they’re very potent. They’re very potent. If you ever told me that the Bills had 450 yards and scored 40 points, I would believe you. It doesn’t matter who the opponent is because I know how capable they are and I know how good their quarterback is. But in the course of 11 games this year, they have told us very firmly that they are an inconsistent and mostly sloppy offense. There’s no consistency. That’s the point. There’s no consistency. Defensively, they’re scrappy, but they’re really undermanned. The pass rush is gone. They haven’t They have one sack in the last three games, and it was that last play against Baker Mayfield where kind of a coverage sack. Daquin Jones strips the ball. That’s it. They didn’t sack Tua. They sacked Baker one time and they didn’t sniff Davis Mills. No sacks. Three quarterbacks. Hurry. three quarterback hurries. Now, to Davis Mills credit, he got the ball out quick. I’m very interested to see where those numbers landed, but I was looking at some live data, and I think at one point, fairly late in the game, he was at like 2.15 seconds average time to throw. But, I mean, ultimately, just the eyeball test shows you that the pass rush isn’t there. Joey Bosa with one hand, not that effective. No Michael Hoy, no Ed Oliver, you have a bunch of young players, and Greg Rouso can’t beat the the rookie left tackle. and your run defense is obviously suspect. Just be honest about this team. Like it’s it’s it’s really limited. The one thing that they had to be was consistent on offense and they’re not. And I know they’re not. They they’ve had like some minor injuries like Concaid’s banged up that Palmer missed some time, but if we’re being honest, it’s that that pales in comparison to what the defense has gone through. They can’t rely on their offense. It’s hard to be perfect all the time. I get it. But the offense in these four losses have just gotten in its own way time and time again. This team, this team would very much surprise me if this is the one, if this is the Bills team that gets over the hump. I’d be very, very surprised that this is the one that’s going to be a probably, you know, if they get in, it’ll be a wild card team. You got to go win three road games. Let’s be real. This team hasn’t really shown you that that’s that’s who they are. Now, if it does come together, we can talk about that. And so, on the other side of it, I want to focus in on all right, what’s where’s your hope? What do you cling to? Like, what are you thinking about in terms of if the Bills are going to go on any type of meaningful run? What things are going to be true? So, we’ll explore that. We’ll talk about injuries. We’ll recap my predictions. And we’ll talk about what’s next here for the Bills and this podcast. in the next segment. So, folks, be sure to stick with me. The NFL season is back and honestly, there’s nothing better than being in the stadium surrounded by fans cheering on your team. But let’s be honest, getting tickets can be a hassle between cues, login screens, and prices jumping at checkout. It is frustrating. That’s why I use Game Time, the app that gives the advantage back to fans. Game time is fast and it’s easy, and it’s backed by the Game Time guarantee. You’re always going to get 100% authentic tickets delivered on time and at the best price. Plus, all fees are included. So, the price you see is the price you pay. The app makes it super simple. I can even see the exact view from my seat before purchasing. Honestly, Game Time is faster, it’s cheaper, and it’s less stressful than any other way that I’ve ever purchased tickets. So, download the Game Time app, create an account, and use code lockdown NFL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, that’s promo code lo NFL for $20 off. Swipe, tap, ticket, go. Download Game Time today. All right, folks. Reacting to the Bills 23-19 loss to the Houston Texans. So, where’s the hope? Where’s the hope? What are you What are you clinging to if you want to be optimistic about how this season can finish. And I don’t know, like I I’ve said before, when someone tells you who they are, believe them. It’s 11 games. This team has told us that they’re highly inconsistent on offense. They’re mistaken prone on offense. Defensively, they don’t have much of a pass rush and they really struggle to stop the run, and that they have to coach above their talent to win in some some situations. So yeah, be be real here. Recalibrate your expectations. Now you go out and battle and compete and you take it one game at a time and keep doing it until you till it’s over. You know, I’m not I’m not saying you fold up. I’m not saying that at all. I’m just as an analyst of this team, it’s my belief that they have a lot of things that they would have to overcome to be a Super Bowl team this year. I think most people would agree with that. Even if you don’t want to hear it, I think it’s pretty true. But if you wanted to be hopeful and optimistic, where where would that come from with six games left to play? Well, I think number one is that the offense figures it out, right? They do have Josh Allen. They they were an offense last year that I said and and believe was potentially the the best offense the Bills have ever put on the field. It’s all pretty much there in terms of the ingredients. So, yeah, I think you could point to that and say they could figure it out. It could all come together in an epic way and that would be huge. Defensively, I I think it comes down to believing in young players that they would take massive inseason steps. Guys like TJ Sanders, guys like Dion Walker, Javon Solomon, Max Harrison, Jordan Hancock. You think about players like Larry Aenjobi who I think is playing better. Greg Rouso that he can elevate his performance. That players who aren’t playing to their normal standard like a Taran Johnson can elevate what they’re offering. And boy, I’m concerned about Taran. dreadful couple games for him. Run fits coverage just doesn’t look like himself at all, which has been the case for a lot of players, right? Terrell Bernard doesn’t look like himself. Taylor Rap didn’t look like himself. Taran Johnson, Christian Benford, it’s concerning. It’s very, very concerning, but I think it’s very important here down the stretch. I mean, the Bills have six regular season games and whatever happens with the postseason. I think you want to take some opportunity here to get these young players some experience, play them, see what you have, and make sure that when you do rally for 2026 that we’re not wondering or we’re not talking about, ah, yeah, they’re not really wrapped. Well, I with all due respect, like let’s go down seeing Hancock and not Pyer or more Hancock. Let’s let’s go down seeing more TJ Sanders and less Jordan Phillips. Let’s see some Dorian Williams, you know, like I think that’s important. As much of that as they can get. I am not packing it in. I am not conceding. I’m being real about what this team is and isn’t. And you want to go battle and try to win these games. There’s no question. Go win them all. I hope they do. But along the way, I think it’s very meaningful to play these young guys and assess and and afford them the opportunity to get some experience. Injuries were a mess in this game. I think three players that didn’t finish. Terrell Bernard, who was seen in a sling, looks like he has some type of elbow deal. Spencer Brown in a sling. Boy, I’m concerned there. Shoulder looks rough. They probably should have pulled him sooner than they did. And then Max Harrison with a concussion. But of course, I mean, who who went to the tent? James Cook was in there. Conor McGovern had some type of leg thing. Deion Dawkins, James Cook, Khlo Shakir, Christian Benford, Josh Allen, whatever. He had a couple of different things. He said his shoulder went numb at one point. It’s a banged up team. You send Thursday games to the moon. Send them to the freaking moon. What are we doing to these players? This is crazy. I mean, have Listen, I don’t think these are hard things to figure out if you’re the league. Go ahead and have Thursday night football, but make it a requirement that you have to you can only play on Thursday night if you’re off of a buy or something. These guys played on Sunday. These guys are going to play a Sunday National Football League game and then have to be in Houston on Thursday to go play another one. I know that this is like a routine thing in the NFL, but it’s just crazy to me. And how many times do we watch these types of games and guys are just getting bang banged up, right? Like when you’re not refreshed, you know, you’re just not able to perform optimally. And I think I just think it’s crazy that the NFL does this to these players. I’d say the same thing if the Bills won the game, by the way. It’s just a big ask. So, we’ll see what the injury report yields whenever we get an update from Shawn McDermott. Let’s recap my predictions here. Uh, my first prediction was that the Bills would go over the Texans season average for allowed points and yards that happened. The Bills scored 19 points, which is more than the 16 that they average giving up. The Bills got 326 yards, which is obviously more than the 258 that they give up. I said that the Bills would hold the Texans under 100 rushing yards. I was very close. The Texans had 108. I think they only averaged like four and a half yards per carry. The Bills Bills run defense had some shaky moments early, but overall they settled in. But I didn’t get it right. They got 108. I said Khlo Shaka would go over 43 and a half receiving yards. This is one of the easiest props of my life. He had 110 receiving yards. Hope you got in on that. I had the Bills with over 100 rushing yards. Something that has only happened twice against Houston this year and didn’t happen in the last two games for Buffalo offensively. That did happen. They got 143 rushing yards. And I predicted the Bills to win. They did not. So I go three for five or excuse me. Yeah, I get three three out of five correct on my predictions this week. I wish I got the last one right, but I didn’t. Next up for this podcast is going to be the All 22 review. I’ll have it to you either Friday afternoon or like Saturday midm morning. Have some plans with my wife that I’m pretty excited about on Friday night. And so if I get done beforehand, I get done beforehand. If not, we’ll finish that up on on Saturday. But it won’t go past Saturday to get you the all 22 review and then of course we’ll get back into the swing of things with Monday. We’ll have an open topic. I got a little something cooked up for that. I know that the the Bills or the Hallmark movie is coming out this weekend. So maybe we’ll have some uh discussion on that and uh maybe reset the deck a little bit on the Bills, but then you know before we know it, we’ll be right back into our routine getting ready for the Bills next game which is against the Pittsburgh Steelers on the road and then it’s the Bengals. So we’re going to find out, right? Going to play them all and see what happens. So far, the Bills are seven and four and super super inconsistent and uh certainly feels like it’s a a long shot for the Bills to win the AFC East for a sixth consecutive season. So, this team’s got some obvious flaws. They really do. And you certainly don’t want to be having these types of conversations at this point, right? Week they just played their week 12 game. You’re nine years into a build, right? and uh you just feel like there’s some real shortcomings with the operation and it’s concerning. All right, folks. Not the conversation I was hoping to have with you today, but it’s the conversation we had to have because the Bills did what they did on the field. So, there we go. All right, thanks for being here. As always, I kindly ask that you share, subscribe, rate, and review. Have a great rest of your day. Go Bills, and I look forward to catching up with you again real real soon.

Buffalo Bills stumble against the Houston Texans, exposing major offensive inconsistencies and raising doubts about AFC East supremacy. Can Josh Allen spark a late-season turnaround, or are the Bills falling behind in the playoff race?
Joe Marino dissects the Bills’ frustrating 23-19 loss, spotlighting costly turnovers, red zone woes, and Houston’s dominant pass rush that sacked Allen eight times. Key topics include Khalil Shakir’s breakout performance overshadowed by a crucial fumble, the defense’s second-half resilience despite a depleted pass rush, and the mounting injury crisis with Terrell Bernard and Spencer Brown sidelined. Discussion extends to emerging young players like TJ Sanders and Deion Walker, and whether Buffalo can recalibrate its offense for a playoff push. Upcoming games against the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cincinnati Bengals loom large—will the Bills correct course, or is a sixth straight AFC East title slipping away?
Visit https://www.thejoemarino.com/ for details on Substack, Subtext, Merch and more!

Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms…
🎧 https://link.chtbl.com/LOBills?sid=Yo…
Locked On NFL League-Wide: Every Team, Fantasy, Draft & More
🎧 https://linktr.ee/LockedOnNFL

Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!
Visit https://www.thejoemarino.com/ for details on Substack, Subtext, Merch and more!

Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms…
🎧 https://link.chtbl.com/LOBills?sid=Yo…
Locked On NFL League-Wide: Every Team, Fantasy, Draft & More
🎧 https://linktr.ee/LockedOnNFL

Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!
Peloton
Let yourself run, lift, flex, and push forward. Explore the new Peloton Cross Training Tread+ today at https://www.onepeloton.com.
PrizePicks
Download the PrizePicks app today and use code LOCKEDONNFL to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup.
Click Here: https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LOCKEDONNFL
Gametime
Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNFL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.
FanDuel
Right now, new customers can bet just FIVE dollars and if your bet wins—you’ll get THREE HUNDRED dollars in bonus bets to use across the app.
FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)