Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott looks up at the scoreboard during the fourth quarter.

Here is the big-picture analysis of the Buffalo Bills’ victory over the Houston Texans:

Boy, are the Houston Texans bad. Does this blowout victory mean much of anything?

Coach Sean McDermott deserves some credit for routinely having his team ready to play.

No doubt, the Bills could have beaten the Texans even if Josh Allen and Stefon Diggs stayed home and played Yahtzee.

Yet once again, McDermott successfully got the entire locker room focused on the task at hand.

How many games have the Bills lost under McDermott against poor teams they clearly should have beaten? None in four-plus years. Yes, they’ve laid some eggs, like in the 2017 home game against New Orleans, the 2017 road game at the Chargers and the 2018 opener at Baltimore (thank you Nathan Peterman for the latter two). But those were big losses to good teams.

McDermott’s teams win the games they’re clearly supposed to win. They take care of business.

Asked if it was hard not looking ahead to Kansas City next week, running back Zack Moss said: ”It wasn’t hard at all, I believe. The way we do things in our building is trying to go 1-0 this week. That’s the biggest thing. We’re not looking forward to the Kansas City game or things like that. We’re trying to focus on our opponent this week and handle our job this week.”

It helps when your team leader drinks the Kool-Aid. Josh Allen said this week he didn’t even know the Bills were playing Kansas City next week until a reporter brought it up. Yeah, right. Nobody’s buying that. But it’s exactly what you want your quarterback to say.

How bad are the Texans?

This was one of the most impotent offenses that ever has performed in Highmark Stadium. It's stunning how completely the Texans' franchise has been sabotaged from within.

It was the seventh fewest yards ever allowed by the Bills (109) and tied for the second fewest first downs ever allowed (six). It was the fewest first downs allowed by the Bills in eight years, since a 2013 shutout win over a Miami team quarterbacked by Ryan Tannehill.

Rookie quarterback Davis Mills was completely over his head. Watching him run the Texans offense was reminiscent of the infamous, 6-3 game between the Bills and Browns in 2009, the nadir of the Dick Jauron regime.

The first quarter of the season already is over. How badly do the Bills need to slay the Kansas City dragon?

It’s a critical game if the Bills want to earn home-field advantage throughout the playoffs, but it’s hardly a must win. The Bills are in good shape at 3-1. Looking at the schedule in July, you had to figure there was a decent chance the Bills would be 3-1 after a quarter of the season. Yes, losing to Pittsburgh was a mild surprise. (Pittsburgh has been decimated by injuries since that opener.) The Miami game was an easy win. But before training camp, losing at Miami in Week 2 seemed like a distinct possibility.

So now the Bills head into a huge two-game stretch, at Kansas City and at Tennessee. It’s important they win one of the two. If they lose both, then their margin of error is small in order to get one of the top two seeds in the AFC for the playoffs. Obviously, a win over the Chiefs would have all of Bills Mafia thinking about the No. 1 seed in the AFC. There’s a long way to go. How much of a threat is New England going to pose for the AFC East title? It’s still too early to say.


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