The nightmare that was the Buffalo Bills’ Week 12 matchup last season against the Houston Texans was a tough scene for Bills fans. The Bills flew down to Houston to take on the Houston Texans in a Thursday Night Football battle that felt lopsided, despite a close final score.
The Texans only won 23-19...but they won with backup quarterback Davis Mills and their defense completely wrecking havoc against Josh Allen and the Bills' offense. Part of the reason why the Bills' offense completely fell apart was because of the lack of protection upfront.
Left tackle Dion Dawkins had a very rough game against the Texans, and now he will be looking to perform better in tomorrow's matchup against two of the best edge rushers in the game.
Bills fans must pay close attention to Dion Dawkins during Week 1
Bradley Locker of Pro Football Focus (PFF) put together a list of the Top 10 player matchups for Week 1 and the matchup of Dion Dawkins vs. Danielle Hunter made the list, and it very well should be.
"Buffalo hopes to exact revenge after falling 23-19 to the Texans in Week 12 of last year. A big reason for Houston’s victory was the play of its pass-rushers — including Hunter, who collected four pressures while lined up against Dawkins. While Dawkins actually held his own against the All-Pro with a 16.7% pressure rate, the Buffalo tackle surrendered two sacks, his most in a game all season." said Locker.
Dawkins has been one the better left tackles in the game, and he's even shown elite performances throughout his career. He is durable and reliable. It's his job to not just help this offensive line be successful, but to also protect Josh Allen's blind side.
That wasn't the case last year against the Texans when Dawkins had one of his worst performances that we can remember. Hunter is one of the best edge rushers in the game, but there are some people that would argue that he's the second best pass rusher on the Texans behind Will Anderson Jr.
Dion Dawkins has to rebound from 2025 performance against Danielle Hunter
Dawkins is starting to come out of his prime a little bit, but he’s still one of the better left tackles in the game. It’s both good and bad that Dawkins’ first matchup is against someone like Hunter. It’s good because he will get an early chance to clean up his game from last year, and it’s the beginning of the season rather than later.
However, if Dawkins shows another outing against Hunter where he struggles, it’s going to spark up conversations on whether or not Dawkins has lost a step in his game.
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