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There is no mystery about what the Texans want to do on offense. They want to run the football. Buffalo knows it, and Buffalo has spent an offseason changing the shape of its defense partly because of teams that want to do exactly that.
John Harris walked through what Houston will see Sunday.
"A new-look Bills defensive front. There will be more of a five-man down, a three-four as we call it."
Oliver moves, and a very large man plays the nose
The change moves people around. Ed Oliver (DT), the Houstonian, is the one Harris flagged first.
"Ed Oliver will probably move outside a little bit, play a little bit more four-eye, maybe all the way out to tackle. But he could penetrate. He's quick. He can be a problem when you want to try and run outside zone to his side, because he's so fast."
Over the nose, Buffalo has a player who is difficult to miss in every sense.
"Deone Walker had a really good preseason. He should play over the nose. You can't miss him. I mean, he's six foot seven and he's 300-something pounds. Looks like a power forward out on the field."
Harris's verdict on the group as a whole was still a confident one.
"I don't think overall, all throughout that defense, that they can slow this run game of the Texans down completely."
The lesson from last time
The more interesting part of the conversation was not about Buffalo at all. It was about what Houston did to itself.
"Last year, we got away from the run game in the second half."
The first half had gone the way the Texans wanted. Woody Marks (RB) was getting chunk runs early, and it set the tone for everything else the offense wanted to do. Then it went quiet.
Harris does not want a repeat, and now there is a deeper backfield to make sure of it. David Montgomery arrived in a March trade with Detroit and profiles as the between-the-tackles complement to Marks, who is a year older and a year more comfortable in this offense.
"We've got to be able to do that for 60 minutes with David Montgomery and Woody Marks."
