Overreaction Tuesday after the first week of the season is always filled with scorching takes. Everyone is so excited to have NFL football back on their television screens that they're just letting the takes fly and putting them into the ether to see what happens. Most of the time, these are overreactions or overcorrections based on one week of evidence, and by Week 18 things get ironed out (remember: both New England and Seattle lost their week 1 games last season).
Defense was optional to open the season last week; the ' Josh Dubow posted that the NFL average of 49.4 points scored is tied for the most in an opening week since 1962 (it was also 49.4 in 2012). Teams with Super Bowl aspirations, such as the Houston Texans, Detroit Lions and Los Angeles Chargers, all looked rough on defense, prompting scorching hot takes across the internet. The real question is should you be worried about these defenses not rebounding, or is this a Week 1 blip?
Let's get the ball rolling with the Texans, who had an uncharacteristically bad day at the office against the Bills. According to TruMedia, the Texans: Not great at all! Despite all of that, I'm more willing to believe this was a bad game for the Texans' defense and a Bills offense with Joe Brady now as head coach, looking to get revenge for their loss to the Texans in 2025 (one of QB Josh Allen's worst games as a pro).
Despite the Texans neutralizing James Cook and the run game (the Texans' 68.4% Defensive Rushing Success Rate was the 6th-best mark of the week in the NFL), Buffalo hammered them with explosive passes at a rate unlike any Ryans defense has given up, to the tune of a 16.1% Explosive Pass Rate, third highest of the Ryans era. Buffalo did a very good job of mixing up the looks that star pass rushers Will Anderson Jr. and Danielle Hunter got during the game, using chip protection, double teams and rollouts to give Allen enough time to get the ball downfield. On the touchdown that would win the game for Buffalo, WR DJ Moore is the one chipping on the right side: Watching the last TD over again, I think the MOF safety was hanging out for the over route that never cameSail concept that Kincaid is the primary option on, unless you are an Alien at QB.
Palmer route is usually just a wind sprint for the WR pic.twitter.com/9z6JXedaaO This one has two chips, one from the tight end and another from the running back in the backfield. Allen has enough time and ends up throwing a howitzer: I'm not worried about the Texans' defense moving forward because not every team has the personnel Buffalo has to do the same things they could. Chipping and rolling out to attack vertically is tough to do, and it's hard to design creatively to keep them on their toes.
On top of that, not every team has a Josh Allen who will punish them vertically or provide the same threat as a scrambler. The Texans' defense should be fine. For a team that was heralded with high expectations going into the season, the Dallas Cowboys' defense went out on Sunday Night Football and looked like … the Cowboys from last year.
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