Allen split two defenders to find Palmer<\/a>. The 2-point conversion failed.<\/p>\nArticle continues below this ad<\/p>\n
One play earlier, Houston\u2019s Kamari Lassiter got his hands on a pass from Allen in the end zone but couldn\u2019t grab the interception.<\/p>\n
Lassiter, a third-year safety, had a tough day. Along with that drop, he was one of the players defending Palmer on the go-ahead score. He also had a pass-interference penalty for 46 yards in the first half that gave the Bills the ball on the 1-yard line, leading to a touchdown.<\/p>\n
Visibly upset, Lassiter took accountability for the loss.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like this team is in a really good spot,\u201d he said. \u201cI feel like everyone played great, everyone but me. So, I\u2019ve just got to be better.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Coach DeMeco Ryans was disappointed that the poor defensive performance spoiled a big day by the offense. C.J. Stroud threw for 274 yards and two touchdowns and David Montgomery added two rushing scores and had a TD catch in his Houston debut after a trade from the Lions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe played together, but we could have definitely played much better defensively,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The Texans entered the season returning all their starters from a defense that led the NFL in yards allowed and ranked second in points allowed last year. Many observers predicted they’d be even better this year.<\/p>\n
Lassiter said the Texans can\u2019t rely on what they’ve done previously and must be better if they hope to avoid a repeat of last season, when they lost their first three games.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt\u2019s a whole new season … and the stuff that we did last year doesn\u2019t count anymore,\u201d he said. \u201cObviously what we put on the field today counts and what I put on the field today wasn\u2019t good enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Bills piled up 409 yards of offense and the Texans allowed their most points since a 36-22 loss to Cleveland on Dec. 24, 2023.<\/p>\n
The Texans yielded a 21-yard touchdown run by Allen, a 43-yard scoring grab by DJ Moore and several other chunk plays in the first half.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe gave up way too many explosives,\u201d Ryans said. \u201cWhen you give up the explosives and you have the opportunity to take the football away, you don\u2019t do those things and you\u2019re going against a top offense in the NFL, that\u2019s what\u2019s going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Last season, Houston sacked Allen a career-high eight times in a 23-19 win.<\/p>\n
The Texans had two sacks Sunday while Allen finished with 334 yards passing and two touchdowns and ran for two more scores.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to be tighter in our coverage,\u201d Ryans said. \u201cThe rush and coverage works together. We have to give the defensive line a little more time. Of course, they had more max protection, shot plays, where they were throwing the ball up. We had opportunities to make those plays and they came down with them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anderson said the Texans would use the disappointing result as motivation.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe\u2019re going to stick together and that\u2019s what the message was after this one,\u201d he said. \u201cStick together, hold your head up high, this is just the first one and let\u2019s just get back to work and play our brand of ball.\u201d<\/p>\n
See AP\u2019s full NFL coverage here<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Houston Texans cornerback Kamari Lassiter (3) breaks up a pass against the Buffalo Bills during the second half…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1000325,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2056],"tags":[1028,597,3607,1475,7,221,253,2368,872,599,463,6,27878,27876,115180,116404,222,84878,13122],"class_list":["post-1000324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston-texans","tag-c-j-stroud","tag-david-montgomery","tag-demeco-ryans","tag-dj-moore","tag-football","tag-houston","tag-houston-texans","tag-houstontexans","tag-josh-allen","tag-joshua-palmer","tag-kamari-lassiter","tag-nfl","tag-package-100502-member-choice-sports-option","tag-product-30599-ap-sports-news-s-wire-only","tag-product-40803-ap-new-york-state-sports-only","tag-product-40815-ap-texas-sports-only","tag-texans","tag-texans-defense-bills","tag-will-anderson"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/117267880202149022","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1000324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1000324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1000324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1000325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1000324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1000324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1000324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}