Buffalo Bills defense primed to hush a loud narrative against the Houston Texans on Sunday

Everybody and their mother knows that Derrick Henry and the Baltimore Ravens ran all over the Buffalo Bills last week. It's all anyone will talk about surrounding either of the two teams.

Buffalo's next opportunity to put that narrative behind them comes in the form of the Houston Texans, and the path to slowing down the run certainly looks like an easier task this week than it was last.

I'm going to preface this like I preface every bit of analysis that I do —no opponent should be taken lightly. These are all professional athletes, and every opponent poses a challenge.

But for Houston, their top two running backs, Joe Mixon and Dameon Pierce, have yet to practice in any capacity this week coming off both of them missing their last two games. In Week 4, Houston totaled 104 rushing yards against the Jaguars, 17 of which came from quarterback CJ Stroud. In Week 3, the Texans were dominated by the Vikings 34-7, and the Texans only compiled 38 rushing yards.

The ground game has not been the strength of this Texans team without Mixon in the picture, who got off to a fantastic start in his first career game for the Texans in Week 1 when he took 30 carries for 159 yards, leading the team to a 213 rushing yard day.

Buffalo has their concerns in rush defense . There's no denying that. They're facing injuries on all levels of the defense right now, and will be entering this weekend's contest more banged up than they have been so far this season.

Hopefully this Houston ground game gives the Bills defense an opportunity to bounce back from last week's performance against opposing rushing attacks before they travel over to New Jersey for Monday Night Football against the Jets in Week 6 to close out a three game road trip.

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Follow along all season for all the latest Buffalo Bills news. You can also find me on X @JonHelmkamp .