The Buffalo Bills have rebounded nicely from their season-opening loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers in Orchard Park.
Over the last two weeks, the Bills have earned victories over the Miami Dolphins and Washington Football Team in convincing fashion, outscoring their opponents by a 78-21 total. This has helped Buffalo improve to 2-1 and re-enter the discussion as one of the best teams in the National Football League.
The Bills are now gearing up to face, arguably, one of the worst teams in the NFL this upcoming Sunday, as the Houston Texans come to Orchard Park for a matchup at Highmark Stadium.
The last time these two teams squared off was back in the AFC Wild Card Round during the 2019 season when the Texans were able to knock the Bills out of the playoffs with a 22-19 overtime win at NRG Stadium in Houston.
Fast forward nearly two years later, and both teams have gone in two totally different directions. While the Bills are on the rise as a legitimate Super Bowl contender in 2021, the Texans are undergoing a complete rebuild, of sorts.
Houston has already made major changes in the front office and with the coaching staff, moving on from the days of Bill O'Brien in charge with the hirings of Nick Caserio as general manager and David Culley as head coach.
On the field, the Texans have re-vamped both sides of the football, with the most major move still likely to come. While plenty of new names and new faces have already been brought in both defensively and offensively, the last domino to fall going forward is quarterback Deshaun Watson.
Watson's name has been brought about in numerous discussions over the past few months, with a number of teams having reported interested in the former first round pick (12th overall) in the 2017 NFL Draft. However, some off the field issues have held up progress in trade discussions with other teams, plus the asking price from Houston's end to acquire Watson has reportedly been astronomical.
With Watson not like to dress for the Texans this season, the team turned to veteran quarterback - and former Bills signal caller - Tyrod Taylor under center to start the 2021 campaign. Taylor's first game went relatively well, as he passed for 291 yards and a pair of touchdowns in a Week 1 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars.
However, Taylor left Houston's Week 2 affair with the Cleveland Browns due to a hamstring injury and has since been placed on Injured Reserve. This guaranteed that he would miss, at least, three weeks of action, and possibly more depending on the progress of his recovery.
Taking over for Taylor under center was rookie quarterback Davis Mills, who was a third round pick (67th overall) of the Texans out of the University of Stanford in the 2021 NFL Draft. He finished the Browns game throwing for 102 yards and completing 48.8% of his passes for a touchdown and an interception.
This past week against the Carolina Panthers on "Thursday Night Football," Mills made his first career start, going 19-of-28 for 168 yards and a touchdown in a losing effort.
Despite being relatively unknown at the NFL level in limited playing action, Bills head coach Sean McDermott is well aware that his team cannot let their guard down against Mills and a Texans offense still with plenty of talented assets.
"He looks like he can make every throw," McDermott said during his weekly appearance on the "Extra Point Show" with Sal Capaccio and "Sneaky Joe" DiBiase. "He's tough. I mean, he's taken some shots and gotten up. And [he's] a smart, smart player. He played at a great school like Stanford and a great institution educationally like Stanford. I know he's off to a great start. He's got one of the highest, if not the highest rookie passer rating this season above all those other well-decorated and highly-celebrated players. We have a lot of respect for him, and that'll be a challenge for us."
Despite not having the familiarity with Mills being under center for Houston, one person McDermott has plenty of past history with in the past is Culley. The two coaches worked together back in the day with the Philadelphia Eagles, where Culley served as the wide receivers coach for 14 seasons and McDermott served many different coaching roles on the defense.
When McDermott was hired by the Bills as head coach in 2017, he hired Culley to serve as Buffalo's wide receivers coach until 2018. Culley then left the Bills to join the Baltimore Ravens organization as the team's assistant head coach, wide receivers coach and passing game coordinator.
McDermott is well-aware of the coach that Culley is, and is happy with the success that has finally come to him over many years working in the NFL.
"I've got a lot of appreciation and respect for coach Culley," McDermott said on WGR. "He's been around some really good programs going back to the days of Pittsburgh [Steelers] and what he did there on staff, and then coming to Philadelphia and then Kansas City [Chiefs]. He's been around here, and then to Baltimore. He's been around a lot of successful programs. I think he's a great person and a great coach, and I have a lot of respect for him."
Meanwhile, McDermott's team in Buffalo is dealing with a list of injuries that has grown over the past few days.
The most notable name that has been banged up since late in Week 3's win over Washington is safety Jordan Poyer. He did not practice on Wednesday or Thursday, as he has been nursing an ankle injury.
McDermott confirmed on Friday that Poyer will be out for the Bills on Sunday, as the veteran safety will only miss his second game since joining the team in 2017. His last game missed was a Week 8 matchup with the, then, Oakland Raiders in the 2017 season.
McDermott also confirmed on Friday that starting guard Jon Feliciano will not play against the Texans after suffering a concussion this week in practice.
As for the rest of the players listed as injured on Thursday's injury report, McDermott says players like cornerback Taron Johnson and defensive end Efe Obada will be "questionable" heading into Sunday's game.
Kickoff between the Bills and Texans at Highmark Stadium is slated for 1 p.m. ET with John Murphy, Eric Wood and Sal Capaccio on the call for the Bills Radio Network.
You can listen to McDermott's entire interview during the "Extra Point Show" below:
