The Buffalo Bills began preparations for their upcoming Thursday Night Football game against the Houston Texans with a walk-through practice on Monday, following a 44-32 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The team faces a short week as they get ready to travel to Houston on Wednesday.
Several players were absent from Monday’s session due to injuries. Tight end Dalton Kincaid (hamstring), defensive tackle Phidarian Mathis (shoulder), wide receiver Mecole Hardman Jr. (calf), and wide receiver Curtis Samuel (elbow/neck) did not participate in the walk-through. Head coach Sean McDermott also listed safety Jordan Poyer, defensive tackle DaQuan Jones, cornerback Christian Benford, linebacker Terrel Bernard, cornerback Taron Johnson, defensive end Joey Bosa, linebacker Dorian Williams, wide receiver Joshua Palmer, offensive lineman Connor McGovern and defensive tackle Jordan Phillips as limited participants. Poyer and Jones were given veteran rest days.
“It’s somewhat to be expected, just coming off of a game yesterday,” McDermott said regarding the injury list. “The key is we got to get them as fresh as we can for Thursday night, somewhere in there you’d like to be able to get in some level of practice.”
Quarterback Josh Allen continues his record-setting season after accounting for six touchdowns in Sunday’s victory. He became the only quarterback in NFL history with multiple games featuring at least three passing touchdowns and three rushing touchdowns each. Allen also surpassed Peyton Manning for most total touchdowns before turning 30 years old; he now has 290 career scores.
Allen is approaching another milestone: he needs one more rushing touchdown to surpass Cam Newton’s record of 75 for most rushing touchdowns by a quarterback in NFL history. “He likes running, he does. Which you would think by now he would be like, ‘hey, no, I’m good’. He’s just so competitive, so tough,” McDermott said.
This season through ten games Allen leads all quarterbacks with ten rushing touchdowns and is on pace for a career-high if current trends continue.
McDermott addressed the situation involving second-year wide receiver Keon Coleman who was made inactive against Tampa Bay after missing a Friday team meeting. Coleman spoke with reporters after Sunday’s game and took responsibility for his actions.
“The important piece is that we and he learns from this, as I said yesterday, and he grows from this. You grow from it, we can move forward, and you don’t grow from it, it’s hard to move forward,” McDermott said Monday.
“So ultimately it becomes about developing trust and the trust that your teammates have in you. That trust builds through repetition and consistency. That’s the direction that we need him to go and we believe he will go.”
When asked whether Coleman would return this week McDermott replied: “We’ll see; we’ll see how it goes. Take it one day at a time; We addressed the situation yesterday. We’re now moving forward and we’ll take it one day at a time from there.”
