Josh Allen didn’t just show up in Houston with the NFL’s new No. 1 quarterback ranking in hand. He backed it up in a game that turned into a showcase for everything that makes him so hard to solve.
Allen entered Week 1 on top of Sports Illustrated’s annual poll, compiled by Albert Breer, after pulling in 49 first-place votes and 427 points from 104 ballots. He finished ahead of Matthew Stafford and Patrick Mahomes, who had held the top spot for years before a knee injury cut into his season last year.
Allen was named on 101 of the 104 ballots, and the survey closed after roster cutdowns before being published Sept. 8.
Then came Sunday at NRG Stadium, where the Bills met DeMeco Ryans’ defense in a 1 p.m. ET CBS kickoff and spent the first half making the ranking look obvious.
By halftime, Buffalo was up 24-21, and as Houston Chronicle beat writer Jonathan M. Alexander noted in the paper’s live blog, the Bills had already scored more in 30 minutes than they managed in full games against Houston in 2024 or 2025.
Allen kept the play alive with his legs, repeatedly escaping to the right and forcing Houston to deal with the exact kind of movement it wanted to erase.
The second quarter belonged to Buffalo, and DJ Moore was right in the middle of it. The Bills had sent a 2026 second-round pick to Chicago in March for Moore and a fifth-rounder, a move that drew plenty of skepticism after Moore’s quiet 2025. On Sunday, he answered with his first touchdown in a Buffalo uniform, hauling in a 43-yard strike from Allen with 1:29 left in the half.
Moore also drew a 46-yard pass-interference flag on Kamari Lassiter in the end zone, setting up Allen’s 1-yard touchdown run. Add in Allen’s earlier 21-yard scoring scramble, and Buffalo put 21 points on the board in the second quarter alone.
NBC Sports had Allen at 8-of-11 for 163 yards and a touchdown at halftime, along with two rushing scores and 24 yards on four carries. Moore had three catches for 76 yards by then.
The Bills confirmed the trade terms when the league year opened, and Moore’s fit made sense on paper because he reunited with head coach Joe Brady, who coached him in Carolina. Brady finally had a true downfield threat after two seasons built more around shorter throws, and Houston’s secondary, set up to squeeze those routes, got burned by the long ball and the flag instead.
The conditions didn’t make life any easier. In-game weather notes had the temperature in Houston in the mid-90s, with a heat index over 100.
None of it slowed Allen down. When the pocket broke, he still found a way to extend the play or finish it himself, even against a front that had sacked him eight times in their last meeting.
The scoring sequence told the story plainly:
Allen 21-yard rush TD 12:46, 2nd Bills 10-7
Allen 1-yard rush TD 3:59, 2nd Bills 17-14
Allen 43-yard TD to Moore 1:29, 2nd Bills 24-14
Houston did answer before the half, with C.J. Stroud hitting Nico Collins for a 12-yard touchdown.
David Montgomery scored twice on the ground, and the game stayed close deep into the fourth quarter. ESPN’s live tracker had Buffalo ahead 36-31 at one point after Allen connected with Joshua Palmer for a 34-yard touchdown, while Houston still had the ball and time left.
Those late numbers could still shift, but the first-half evidence was already clear enough.
Allen entered the day 0-4 in Houston in his career. That made the preseason QB ranking feel even more pointed, because the coaches and executives who voted on it were betting on the total package: the arm, the legs, the chaos he creates for a defense. Against Houston, he gave them all of it in one afternoon.
What happens next is still to be seen, especially with Brady and Moore’s connection and how Houston adjusts its coverage. But Sunday went a long way toward explaining why Allen got those 49 first-place votes before the season even started.
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