ORCHARD PARK - Joe Brady, like just about every head coach or defensive coordinator in the history of football, said the other day that the key to playing great defense is to first stop the run.
It was true in 1926 when the Pottsville Maroons allowed just 29 points in their 14 games, and it is true in 2026 when the defending Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks - who finished third in run defense on the way to their title - limited New England to 3.5 yards per attempt in Wednesday’s season-opening 13-10 victory.
“In the game of football nowadays, you’ve got to be able to run the football and stop the run,” Brady said. “There’s no secret. There’s no, like, ‘Oh, my gosh’ – that’s an epiphany. We know, to be able to control the game, we’ve got to be able to go out
there and stop the run.”
Brady is going to get an early look at where his Bills’ run defense stands Sunday in the season opener against the Houston Texans.
The Texans have a strong 1-2 running back duo in second-year man Woody Marks and former Bears and Lions standout David Montgomery, whom they acquired in a March trade In a game where Buffalo’s offense will probably be hard-pressed to score more than 20 points against Houston’s elite defense, the more opportunities it gets the better.
And a big way the Bills’ defense can provide those opportunities for Josh Allen is to hold up against the run and limit the Texans’ ability to put together sustained drives that would serve the dual purpose of putting points on the scoreboard while also keeping Allen glued to the Buffalo sideline.
“They've got a few really good backs,” linebacker Terrel Bernard said. “We played Montgomery a few times, we played Woody Marks last year. Good backs, physical, downhill, and they can make guys miss when they need to. So it'll be a challenge for us, I think. That's part of our preparation, understanding who we're going against and what they're good at and what we need to come with on Sunday.”
Marks gained 74 yards in the Texans’ 23-19 victory over Buffalo last season, part of a solid rookie season when he ran for 703 yards, plus gained another 129 in two postseason games. Montgomery has two 1,000-yard seasons on his resume and in his three seasons with Detroit sharing time with Jahmyr Gibbs, the hard-charging Montgomery averaged 4.5 yards per carry and scored 33 rushing touchdowns.
Why fixing the run defense became a top priority for Bills
One of the major points of emphasis new defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard established for the Bills this season is to improve their run defense, and not just improve it - it needs to be much better after a terrible 2025 performance. They ranked 28th in the league at 136.2 yards allowed per game, 30th in yards per attempt at 5.1, and 31st in most rushes of at least 10 yards with 65.
Granted, there were circumstances that can’t be ignored. Ed Oliver missed most of the season and the Bills were leaning on rookies Deone Walker and TJ Sanders, aging DaQuan Jones, and nonfactors like Jordan Phillips, Larry Ogunjobi, Phidarian Mathis and Zion Logue in the middle of their line. The Bills are much better equipped against the run in 2026, and Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans knows it.
Speaking specifically of Oliver, Ryans said, “Ed's a really disruptive player. He can wreck a game by playing violent in the backfield, making plays, sideline-to-sideline. He's been a good player for a long time. He’s a guy we have to put a hat on every single time.”
On a broader scale, Ryans said that this will be an interesting test for his team because they are the first to go against whatever Leonhard’s defense is going to be.
“This is a new Buffalo Bills team, it's not the team we played the past couple years,” Ryans said. “New head coach, new coordinators in all three phases. What Jim brings, they're going to be a more multiple front so you'll see more five-down fronts than they've had in the past. They're going to put their base defense out there, he's going to try to mix it up, try to confuse the quarterback with some disguises, bring in different pressures, drop in the outside linebackers and coverage.
“We have to be on it from a preparation standpoint because right now, for his track record, it's his first game calling it with the Bills. He has everything at his disposal when it comes to trying to confuse the quarterback. He's been coaching for a while. He's not a newbie, he knows what he's doing, knows how to try to get the offenses playing off key a little bit.”
With Bernard, Oliver and Michael Hoecht all back from injuries, Walker looking like he’s ready to take another step forward after a nice rookie season, and the additions of veterans Bradley Chubb and Greg Gaines, both of whom have vast experience in Leonhard’s odd-man front defense, the run defense will almost certainly be better.
“It just makes blocking schemes a little more challenging,” Gaines said of the odd-man front, a scheme he played in both Los Angeles and Tampa Bay. “They have to block one extra big guy, so it makes it a little easier to get linebackers free and keep the line of scrimmage controlled.”
Rebuilt Texans line gives Bills an opportunity
And in this game, the Bills could excel because the biggest question mark on the Texans’ roster is the offensive line. Last season Pro Football Focus ranked the Texans’ line 27th per its metrics and even that seemed high since they finished last in run block win rate (68.4%) and 30th in pass block win rate (55.5%).
Interestingly, despite altering the look of the group this year, 27th is the position the Texans begin in PFF’s 2026 preseason ranking so this might be the right time for the Bills to get this matchup.
The Texans may be starting rookie Keylan Rutledge at LG after he performed better this summer than free agent signee and former Bills’ draft pick Wyatt Teller. Promising but inexperienced second-year man Aireontae Ersery will start at LT, and at RT, with free agent signee Braden Smith beginning the season on injured reserve, the Texans are turning to 33-year-old Trent Brown who has only played about 1,200 regular-season snaps in the last three years between the Patriots, Bengals and Texans.
“Regardless of how it kind of looks compared to last year, we’re a completely different team and the scheme will be different, just like they are going to be completely different,” Brady said. “I know it will be a test for us, but I have the confidence in Jim and the staff to put together a plan for whatever is needed that week.”
Sal Maiorana has covered the Buffalo Bills for more than four decades including 37 years as the full-time beat writer/columnist for the D&C. He has written numerous books about the history of the team, and he is also co-host of the BLEAV in Bills podcast/YouTube show. He can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com, and you can follow him on X @salmaiorana and on Bluesky @salmaiorana.bsky.social.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Bills believe they've solved a major weakness. Texans will find out
