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'Feels good to start the season off right' | Bills reflect on Joe Brady's first win

Sep 13, 2026 at 07:49 PM

Seasonal Writing Associate

The Buffalo Bills started off the 2026 regular season with an impressive 36-31 victory over the Houston Texans on Sunday afternoon. The win was the first in a new era under head coach Joe Brady, picking up a hard-nosed win against a conference opponent to begin the year.

After preparing all offseason to put a good product on the field, Brady's group came through in a big way with a comeback victory.

"It feels good to start the season off right," QB Josh Allen said. "Obviously, Coach Joe getting his first win as an NFL head coach takes a lot of time, a lot of effort to get into a position to be able to do that, and I'm really happy for him. He called a heck of a game."

Buffalo fought all game throughout a high-intensity battle that featured eight lead changes. The fight in the group was obvious all day long, battling for their head coach.

"Our motto's been 'put the ball down' since OTA's and compete, so that's what we do; we go out there, just put the ball down, just compete until there's no more time left," OLB Greg Rousseau said.

"The guys love playing for Joe, I think it shows, and it's just really cool to see it pay off," TE Dalton Kincaid said. "He puts a lot of time into this building early, out late, and he sacrifices a lot. So it's really cool to see it pay off. It makes us want to play harder for him."

As a former offensive coordinator and the team's playcaller, the eyes were on Brady's offense against a tough Texans defense. The 36-year-old put together an impressive game plan on that side of the ball, putting up the most points any team has tallied against Houston since the 2023 season (36).

Eliminating Houston's star-studded pass rush was a major focal point in the win, protecting Allen well throughout the majority of the game.

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"The game plan that we had was trying to limit their D-line from wrecking this game and getting hands-on, doing some run action, play action stuff, getting the ball out quick," Allen said. "All of that adds up throughout the game. And when you're able to sit back in the pocket against a team like this with two edges like this, you feel pretty good when your guys can hold up, and we did tonight."

Brady did have a big spotlight on him as Buffalo watched to see how he'd handle his first game as a head coach, but he gives all of the credit to how his players showed up for him.

"It's just one game, and whether we won this game or whether we lost this game, we're going to have to wake up tomorrow and get back to work," Brady said. "But to see the guys that have been putting in a lot of the work to see it to kind of show up, I was really proud of that."

Brady acknowledged that the offense, defense and special teams units all have stuff to learn from and work on moving forward, but in the end, he's happy to start the year with a win.

"I'm just proud of the guys," Brady said. "You saw a lot of the conviction; Everything we talked about, we didn't care how pretty. There's no such thing as an ugly win, right?"

Looking forward to Week 2, Brady will have to quickly get his team back ready to go for the home opener against the Detroit Lions on Thursday, Sept. 17 at 8:15 p.m. EST. With just three days before the next game, the Bills know they can't take too much time celebrating their first victory.

"It's 1-0," Allen said. "We've got a game on Thursday night, and we've got to be ready for that one."