Written by Mykail Mereau
Buffalo Bills head down to H-Town this week to take on the Houston Texans. There’s a lot of storylines heading into this game on Sunday with the main attraction being towards between former teammates that transformed Buffalo into one of the most prolific offenses in the last four seasons.
Josh Allen & Stefon Diggs reunion
It’s obvious that this is the main storyline heading into this matchup with the former dynamic duo of Josh Allen and Stefon Diggs. Allen and Diggs was the league’s best quarterback and wide receiver for the last four years since Diggs arrival to Buffalo in 2020. However, the friendship started to drill down when had that moment on the sidelines happened between Allen and Diggs during the 2022 AFC Divisional Round of the playoffs against the Cincinnati Bengals at home. Last year in the season opener on the road against division rival New York Jets on Monday Night Football. Buffalo loss into dramatic fashion due to Allen’s horrendous performance with four turnovers which three of them was interceptions and one fumble loss. In the locker room after the game was over with, Allen and Diggs had interaction with one of them where Diggs came up to Allen and no one knew what Diggs said him but Allen completely snapped at Diggs by saying “it’s one f—ing game!!!”. Earlier this year, Diggs made a cryptic tweet on Twitter taking shots at Allen stating that he believes that he made Allen the quarterback he is today and without his help Diggs believes that Allen would be loss in the offense without Diggs being out there on the field. This cryptic tweet by Diggs led to him being traded to the Houston Texans for the very next morning after taking shots at the face of the franchise. A few weeks ago in a recent press conference interview with Allen stated the approach of the Bills offense this year by saying “That’s the beauty of it when guys get to buy into this and really understand like I may not get the ball four or five times thrown to me a game but the one or two times I do, I’m going to have opportunities to be in the end zone. It’s a fun and wonderful thing when you got a bunch of guys that don’t care about the stats, they don’t care about the touchdowns.” Many people in the national media speculated that quote from Allen was a shot directly at Diggs, but Allen denied it of taking a shot at his former teammate to the national media. This matchup is a lot to take in between two former teammates to now bitter enemies. But the question who will have bragging rights once it’s all said and done between Allen and Diggs. Will Allen have a masterclass type performance without Diggs? Does Diggs have the game of his life against his former team? We’ll find that answer out after Sunday in the afternoon.
Will Coleman and Samuel be the focal point of the offense without Shakir?
Head coach Sean McDermott announced that wide receiver Khalil Shakir will be out on Sunday due to a ankle injury. With Shakir being out on Sunday in Houston will the focal point of the Bills offense be directly focused on rookie wide receiver Keon Coleman and wide receiver Curtis Samuel. Samuel hasn’t been utilized in the offense as many Bills fans hoped he will be, now this could because of him still having turf toe injury back in training camp and he isn’t fully 100% healthy yet. But Samuel could definitely fill in that Shakir role of being a slot and gadget playmaker receiver. While Coleman should be focus as the dominant X receiver as the Bills drafted him to be which he has shown some flashes of his playmaking ability as of late. So I fully except Brady getting both Coleman and Samuel involved in this offense being the focal points without Shakir presents on Sunday.
The return of Terrell Bernard?
It hasn’t been official whether or not that McDermott will start Terrell Bernard on Sunday. But there’s a chance we could see the return of rising star linebacker of the Bills being back on the field after being out for two weeks with a pectoral injury. He did return earlier this week and things look to be trending upwards for him coming back sooner than later. But as I said before McDermott hasn’t decided if he will start him on Sunday. But if he does start him it will a huge boost for the Bills defense as they have already lost Ed Oliver, Von Miller, and Taylor Rapp on defense for Sunday. And also with Bernard potentially returning the middle of the field for the defense will be a lot of better than it was last Sunday night against the Baltimore Ravens. So we’ll find out before Sunday that we’ll be witnessing the return of Terrell Bernard on the defensive side of the ball.