HOUSTON - Never mind that Josh Allen hadn’t even looked Joshua Palmer’s way once, let alone targeted him with a pass, until the last two offensive plays the Buffalo Bills ran Sunday afternoon.
Yet despite Palmer having done nothing but get a few wind sprints in and trying to take coverage away from someone else, the wide receiver, who is looking to bounce back from a frustrating, injury-marred 2025 season, believed that he was going to make the biggest play of the game.
“I felt confident I was going to get the game-winning touchdown,” Palmer said, moments after he had just done that, catching a 34-yard laser from Allen with 1:36 left to play to give the Bills a thrilling 36-31 victory over the Houston Texans at Reliant Stadium.
It was the only
pass Palmer caught, and the only other target he had came on the play before, one that almost resulted in disaster. The same cornerback that he beat for the touchdown, Kamari Lassiter, had a game-clinching interception right in his hands in the end zone and inexplicably dropped it.
Given the ultimate mulligan, Allen went right back to Palmer for the winner on a post route where Palmer made an excellent move into his break and caught Lassiter, who may have been looking for a corner route, a little flat-footed.
“I knew based off the leverage of the corner, I had a big chance of getting the ball,” Palmer said. “I feel like I knew I was getting the ball. I told myself when we were down one I was going to get the game-winning touchdown or game sealing. I didn’t know when or how, I just knew it. I kept telling myself these guys can’t hang with you. They have to guard you for four quarters.”
Palmer’s play capped a tremendous day for the Bills offense as they shredded a Houston defense that is not only one of the best in the NFL, but one that had manhandled the Bills in each of the last two games between the teams.
Allen completed 20 of 29 passes for 334 yards, both DJ Moore (100 yards) and Dalton Kincaid (135) had big days, the Bills finished with 409 yards and did not turn the ball over.
And while the defense had some major struggles, it came up with the biggest play of the game in the dying seconds when Greg Rousseau recorded his second sack/forced fumble of the game on Houston quarterback CJ Stroud and Terrel Bernard fell on the ball at the Buffalo 24 with nine seconds remaining.
Here are some of my observations:
O’Cyrus Torrence saved the game
For all the big plays that were made by Allen and the offense, the one that will probably be forgotten was actually as big as any other.
On the first snap of what became the game-winning 96-yard drive to Palmer’s touchdown, James Cook ripped off a nice 12-yard run but at the end, Texans cornerback Derek Stingley Jr. knocked the ball out. Torrence, doing as he was trained, was following the play and when the ball went to the ground, he was there to pounce on it and save the day.
Had Houston recovered that with three minutes left, it might have spelled doom for the Bills.
“That's something we practice all the time,” Torrence said. “Every time we have a rep, they say to chase the ball. Coaches are always yelling it in the background so it's something we know and we practice and the play the same way in the game. No matter where the ball is, it could be out there down the field, just jog towards it, chase it because you never know. I was chasing it, ran right into the play and I was in the right place, right time.”
DJ Moore made a dynamic debut
Moore was signed to be the No. 1 receiver Allen has needed the past couple years, and after a quiet start where he had no targets for the first quarter and a half, Moore announced himself in the second quarter.
With the Bills trailing 14-10, he ran a nice route over the middle to grab an 18-yard pass from Allen, and on the next snap, Moore had Lassiter beat on a deep route and Lassiter interfered with him in the end zone for a 46-yard penalty that put the ball on the 1, from where Allen scored two plays later.
And on the next series, he caught a 15-yard pass on the first play after the two-minute warning, then caught a deep sideline pass and when Reed Blankenship whiffed on an interception attempt, Moore had clear sailing to the end zone for a 43-yard TD.
“I had plays and was just waiting on my moment to get called and when it did, I just made the best of them and went from there,” Moore said. “It's all about getting into a flow state, and then you go from there with the rest of the team.”
On his TD, he ran a deep out to the right sideline and Allen had to make a great throw to get it there. Blankenship thought he could make the pick but the throw was perfect and Moore knew he was staring at a touchdown.
“I knew he was the last person that was behind me, and he drove on the ball,” Moore said. “I don't know if he kind of got a tip on it, but it was already in my hands when he did, and I was like, I hope I don't step out of bounds. The slight pause was me trying to stand down and make sure I turned the right way to go score. I was like, there’s nobody else back there, so let's go score.”
This is the Dalton Kincaid the Bills need
Across three good but certainly not great seasons, much of the time spent dealing with injuries, the 2023 first-round has felt a little like a tease.
The skill set and the talent was obvious, but we were waiting for Kincaid to have performances similar to the ones we see from the other big-time tight ends around the league.
Well, he finally delivered one in this game - five catches for a career-high 130 yards, the most yards by a Bills tight end since Paul Costa's incredible two games in 1967.
Most receiving yards by a Bills TE in a single game:
— Buffalo Bills PR (@BuffaloBillsPR) September 13, 2026
1. Paul Costa - 163 (12/24/67 - at OAK)
2. Paul Costa - 138 (11/19/67 - vs. DEN)
3. Dalton Kincaid - 130 (9/13/26 at HOU) https://t.co/LDsYrPCh7K
“I think it's just being out there feeling really good, a completely different ball game,” Kincaid said about being healthy. “A lot of guys today had some success, so it's just awesome to see everybody out there feeling good. You know, when we're at full strength, it's hard to beat us.”
Kincaid had a couple enormous plays that paved the way for scores. He made a spectacular leaping catch for 38 yards while being covered by star cornerback Derek Stingley with two minutes left in the second quarter and two plays later, Allen hit Moore for his touchdown.
“I kind of knew he was going to throw it up there,” Kincaid said. “I just was like waiting on it, and the ball seemed like it was in the air forever. And then, just one on one, Josh gave me the opportunity to go up and win. Just got to win for him.”
Right after the Bills fell behind 28-27 early in the fourth, he caught back-to-back passes, the first a little six-yarder but the second a 40-yarder down the seam that set up Tyler Bass’ go-ahead 33-yard field goal.
And finally, with two minutes left in the game, Kincaid reeled in a 35-yarder to the Texans’ 33 that set the stage for the winning TD pass to Palmer.
It’s pretty clear, if this game is any indication, that the Bills are going to ride with Moore, Khalil Shakir and their tight ends, especially Kincaid. I don’t have the final snap counts yet, but Kincaid was on the field for probably 75% of Buffalo’s offensive plays, and Dawson Knox and Jackson Hawes also saw playing time, while Palmer and Keon Coleman had minimal roles.
Defense is definitely a work in progress
Jim Leonhard’s debut as a defensive coordinator will go down in the books as a victory, but the film review on Monday is going to show plenty of issues that need to be fixed.
An average Texans offense produced 26 first downs, 381 yards, and converted nine third- and fourth-down plays which helped Stroud put together scoring drives of 76, 75, 86, 72 and 26 yards, and he nearly delivered a sixth score at the end before his game-ending fumble. But in the end, when it mattered most, the defense came up with the biggest stop of the game and preserved the victory.
“Frustrating to give up those third-and-longs,” linebacker Terrel Bernard said. “Obviously, you want to get off the field. We had a couple of penalties that we can clean up easily, so clean those up, we do our jobs a little bit better on first, second down.”
Cornerback Christian Benford had a particularly tough day and for this defense to succeed, that can’t continue to happen. Nico Collins had his way with Benford, though at the end of the game, Benford had a great rep that prevented a completion near the goal line just before Stroud’s fumble.
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: 4 things that stood out in Bills' exciting Week 1 win against Texans
