Houston entered the season with one of the NFL’s most feared defenses, but Josh Allen and the Bills exposed some vulnerabilities that Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase and Cincinnati will try to exploit.
The Houston Texans entered the 2026 NFL season believing their defense could be the best in football.
One week later, that unit has something to prove.
Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills humbled Houston’s highly regarded defense in a 36-31 season-opening loss, piling up 409 yards and repeatedly producing the kind of explosive plays the Texans are built to prevent.
There isn’t much time for DeMeco Ryans and his defense to figure out what went wrong.
Next up is Joe Burrow and a Cincinnati Bengals offense loaded with weapons, including Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins and Mike Gesicki. If Houston’s defense is going to live up to its preseason billing, it will need to correct its Week 1 problems quickly.
Will Anderson Jr. isn’t running from what happened against Buffalo.
“That’s probably the best thing that could have happened to us,” Anderson said this week. “We got hit in the mouth and now we know how to respond. Now it’s a wake-up call for everybody.”
So how can the Texans respond and slow one of the NFL’s most dangerous quarterbacks?
Texans Must Eliminate the Explosive Plays
Before worrying about Burrow, Chase or Higgins, Houston has to fix the biggest problem from Week 1.
The Texans surrendered five completions of at least 30 yards against Buffalo, including touchdown passes of 43 and 34 yards. Allen finished with 334 passing yards as Houston allowed 7.9 yards per play.
That’s not the defense Ryans expects to see.
During his weekly radio appearance, Ryans revealed the first defensive key he had written down before the Buffalo game: eliminate explosive plays.
“If we go into a game and don’t do the number one thing we were expected to do, how do we expect to win the football game,” Ryans said.
Defensive coordinator Matt Burke said Houston’s coverage problems weren’t primarily the result of blown assignments. They were more fundamental than that.
“It was a technique thing more than anything,” Burke said Thursday. “It was leverage stuff. It was some technique issues.”
Those mistakes become even more dangerous against Burrow.
Cincinnati couldn’t get Chase involved in its 33-27 Week 1 victory over Tampa Bay, as the All-Pro receiver finished with just two catches for 12 yards. The Bengals have made it clear that can’t happen again.
That makes preventing explosive plays an even bigger priority for Houston.
Will Anderson Jr., Danielle Hunter Have to Make Joe Burrow Uncomfortable
Houston’s best defense against Burrow might be preventing him from having enough time to attack its secondary.
The Texans have one of the NFL’s most dangerous pass-rushing tandems in Anderson and Danielle Hunter, but Buffalo found ways to minimize their impact.
Houston sacked Allen only twice after getting him eight times when the teams met last season.
Anderson acknowledged that Buffalo attacked Houston’s edge rushers differently, using chips, pullers and moving the pocket to prevent the Texans from simply teeing off on Allen.
Burrow presents a different challenge.
“I think he wants to stay in the pocket and throw the ball,” Anderson said. “He wants to play quarterback. He’s a really good quarterback.”
That makes getting pressure with four rushers especially important.
The Texans don’t want to become dependent on blitzing Burrow. If Anderson and Hunter can create pressure without additional rushers, Houston can devote more defenders to Chase, Higgins, Gesicki and Cincinnati’s other receiving options.
Burrow is too accurate to give him a comfortable pocket for four quarters.
Ryans called him “one of the best quarterbacks I’ve watched and studied,” specifically pointing to Burrow’s accuracy and ball placement.
“He can place the ball, on the sideline, on the numbers, wherever he wants to put it, he’ll put it there,” Ryans said.
The Texans need to make sure he doesn’t have time to consistently do it.
Derek Stingley Jr. Could Be Houston’s Answer for Ja’Marr Chase
Cincinnati won its opener without much production from Chase.
Don’t expect the Bengals to accept that again.
Chase is coming off a 1,412-yard season and had five catches for 124 yards and a touchdown the last time he faced Houston. Cincinnati coach Zac Taylor acknowledged this week that getting the ball to his star receiver will be an emphasis after Chase touched it only twice in the opener.
Fortunately for Houston, it has one of the NFL’s best answers.
Derek Stingley Jr. gives Ryans something few defensive coaches possess: a cornerback capable of handling elite receivers without requiring constant safety help.
That doesn’t mean Stingley necessarily follows Chase everywhere.
But Houston can use him to alter Cincinnati’s options while allowing the rest of the secondary to devote resources to Higgins and Gesicki.
The matchup is also an intriguing reunion. Stingley and Burrow were teammates on LSU’s 2019 national championship team, so there is plenty of familiarity between the two.
With Burrow throwing the football, however, even excellent coverage isn’t always enough.
“It doesn’t matter if you are playing tight coverage,” Ryans said. “Joe can still fit the ball in there.”
That puts even more pressure on Houston’s secondary to be technically sound after its Week 1 struggles.
Texans Can’t Forget About Mike Gesicki
Chase and Higgins will receive most of the attention, but Buffalo exposed another area Cincinnati can attack.
Bills tight end Dalton Kincaid caught five passes for 130 yards against Houston.
Now the Texans get Gesicki, who led Cincinnati with five receptions for 78 yards and a touchdown in Week 1.
That’s a matchup Burrow could repeatedly exploit if Houston becomes too preoccupied with Cincinnati’s wide receivers.
The Texans need better communication and tackling in the middle of the field, especially with linebacker Henry To’oTo’o sidelined by a concussion.
Burrow doesn’t need to throw 40-yard passes all afternoon if Gesicki and Cincinnati’s other underneath targets are consistently open.
Make Joe Burrow Be Patient
Perhaps the biggest lesson from Buffalo is that Houston cannot allow the game to become easy for an elite quarterback.
The Texans don’t have to completely shut down Burrow. Against this collection of offensive talent, that’s unrealistic.
They need to make Cincinnati earn its points.
Keep Chase and Higgins in front of the secondary. Rally to underneath throws. Tackle immediately. Force the Bengals to repeatedly convert third downs and execute in the red zone.
That gives Anderson, Hunter and the rest of Houston’s defensive front more opportunities to produce the negative play that changes a possession.
Anderson believes the answer isn’t some dramatic schematic overhaul after one bad performance.
“For us, it’s just really going to have to go back to our foundation of who we are,” Anderson said. “Everybody plastering. Everybody rushing together.”
That’s probably the blueprint.
One bad afternoon doesn’t erase what Houston accomplished defensively last season.
But Buffalo exposed legitimate concerns.
The Texans gave up 36 points. They surrendered 409 yards. Allen threw for 334 yards. Houston allowed repeated explosive plays and didn’t consistently affect the quarterback with its pass rush.
Ryans isn’t interested in singling out one position group for what happened.
“The expectation for us defensively is for everybody to improve,” Ryans said. “Last Sunday wasn’t good enough, not from any one position.”
Now comes an immediate opportunity to find out whether Week 1 was an aberration or the beginning of a more troubling trend.
Burrow might be the ideal test.
Let Anderson and Hunter attack him without relying on constant blitz pressure. Trust Stingley with difficult assignments on the outside. Prevent Chase and Higgins from generating game-changing plays. Don’t allow Gesicki to feast underneath. And, above everything else, eliminate the explosive plays that wrecked the defense against Buffalo.
Houston doesn’t have to shut out Cincinnati to prove its defense remains among the NFL’s elite.
But after being humbled by Buffalo, the Texans need to look much more like the defense everyone expected them to be.
Gary Adornato is a veteran sports media executive, publisher and journalist with more than four decades of experience in … More about Gary Adornato