Safe to say the Buffalo Bills are on a bit of a strange trajectory in a bizarre 2025 campaign wherein, as he's wont to do, superstar quarterback Josh Allen is making up for a lot of flaws.
Whether it's the 31st-ranked run defense, a talented wide receiver being a healthy scratch, or any number of other issues, Allen has the Bills sporting a shiny 7-3 record entering Thursday's standalone tilt with the Houston Texans.
Life just got a lot easier for Buffalo, too, as Allen's typical Texans counterpart is still battling through some injury-related adversity.
Texans QB Davis Mills thrust into duty again as C.J. Stroud misses Week 12 vs. Bills
ESPN insider Adam Schefter reported on Tuesday that C.J. Stroud is still recovering from the concussion he suffered in Week 9's loss to the Broncos. That puts Davis Mills under center in Houston for the home team.
Allen is coming off a monster six-TD performance in Sunday's 44-32 triumph over Tampa Bay. Not a bad response by him to laying an absolute egg the game prior in Miami.
As Allen and Co. head west from the Sunshine State to the Lone Star State, this Stroud injury news is about the biggest break the Bills could've gotten. Not that Mills is a disaster, yet he's a massive downgrade from the more accurate, field-stretching Stroud.
Houston's DeMeco Ryans is coaching his absolute face off to will the Texans to a 5-5 record. They've won the last two games in the AFC South over the Jags and Titans by a combined 10 points. It took a furious Mills rally to stun Jacksonville from 19 points down in the final quarter, and a game-winning field goal drive to squeak by a 1-9 Tennessee team by three points.
This has all the makings of a Bills blowout. Then again, they had a huge letdown to the Dolphins after beating the Chiefs. With such a short turnaround and coming off of such an Apex Josh Allen performance, there's little elsewhere for Buffalo's offense to go but down.
On the Texans' side of things, their obvious, glaring weakness is their patchwork offensive line. Thanks to the Bills' porous run defense, that Houston shortcoming won't come into play as much to kick off Week 12.
There's a world in which the Texans pound the rock, play keep-away from Allen, and let DeMeco cook to win the turnover battle.
It'd be a far worse matchup for Buffalo personnel-wise if Stroud was starting, however. The most likely scenario is the Bills' No. 2 pass defense forces Mills into multiple interceptions, and Allen makes just enough plays with his dubious cast of receivers against the Texans' stout secondary to pull this one off on the road.