How the Bills Avoid Trap Against Texans

The Buffalo Bills have heard it. As much as they'd like not to think about it, they can't avoid hearing it. Because they've been asked about it more than a few times this week.

Is Sunday's scheduled home clash with the Houston Texans a trap game?

After all, the Texans (1-2) are one of the NFL's worst teams and the heavily favored Bills (2-1) are coming off back-to-back blowout victories and are looking at perhaps their biggest game of the season the following Sunday night when they visit the Kansas City Chiefs, who beat them in the AFC Championship Game last January.

Suffice to say that the Bills know they can beat the Texans. They can't be nearly as certain about the Chiefs, who beat them in the 2020 regular season as well.

Hence this whole week has been about trying to clean up the things that went wrong in last week's 43-21 win over Washington and remaining in search of the elusive and essentially impossible perfect game.

That even goes for quarterback Josh Allen, named the AFC Offensive Player of the Week for his role in the win over Washington.

"We've got to go out there, put [out] our best effort against a really good team that they've got," Allen said. "I know all the preconceived notions that they had coming into this season, all the offseason stuff that they dealt with. They are a team, I tell you what, they play extremely hard. They've got some real good players, really talented players on defense. They do a real good job of taking the ball away.

"So again, whatever people want to say, it's a week-to-week league and this is a team that is going to win a lot of games, and we've got to be extremely prepared for them."

Added Allen, unconvincingly: "I didn't even know we were playing [the Chiefs] next, to be honest. Our focus is on the Houston Texans."

Center Mitch Morse claims not to believe in traps either.

"I can only speak for myself," he said, "and I mean, when people ask who's the best player I play against, it's the person I'm playing at that time. I mean, every day it's a nightmare to block in my opinion in this league. There's a reason why they play in the NFL. And so for us, we understand that this is a very talented defensive front four that plays exceptionally hard. I think you watch the film, they play through the whistle and they play with extreme effort."

One of the things Morse pointed to that the Bills are still looking to improve on is the running game, which has been encouraging in their two wins.

"I feel like we ... still have a lot to work on in that department," he said. "I give a lot of kudos to the running backs for making our jobs a lot easier, the coaches putting us in optimal positions. And I mean it was an onus this offseason.

"... I feel like we still have a lot of work to do. Individually, I know I have a lot of work to do. It's exciting. But just like in training camp, you know, it's crunch time."

Besides, the Bills already have lost as many games at home this season as they did all of last season. So they are motivated to run the table in front of their fans.

The Bills take every game seriously, according to coach Sean McDermott.

"If you don't, you get your ass kicked," he said.

Nick Fierro is the publisher of Bills Central. Check out the latest Bills news at www.si.com/nfl/bills and follow Fierro on Twitter at @NickFierro. Email to Nicky300@aol.com.