5 stats you'll want to know from Bills' frustrating 23-20 loss to Texans

Here are five stats that stand out from the Buffalo Bills' Week 5 loss to the Houston Texans.

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The Buffalo Bills have suffered another loss, this time a confusing heartbreaker 23-20 to the Houston Texans on Sunday. The loss knocks them back to 3-2 on the year, but still in first in the AFC East; here are five stats from the forgettable loss.

Nothing on the Plate

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Josh Allen threw 18 passes to Bills wide receivers on Sunday, of which they caught just four. Keon Coleman, Mack Hollins, Curtis Samuel, and Marquez Valdes-Scantling each had at least three targets that weren't brought in. According to ESPN, that is the worst reception percentage for a Bills' wide receiver group since 2009 and the worst by any team with a minimum of 15 targets since 2016 (Rams). If the numbers don't make sense to you in written form, it's not you, they don't.

#Bills WR Catch/Target ratios:

Coleman 1/5
Hollins 2/6
Samuel 1/4
MVS 0/3

— Greg Vorse (@GregVorse) October 6, 2024

Related: Bills made NFL history with poor end-of-game management vs. Texans

More Ingredients when James Cooks

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James Cook saw eight-man boxes 35% of the time Sunday, per NextGenStats, the fifth-highest rate in the NFL for Week 5. For the entire season, Cook is seventh at 31.43%. It makes the struggles in the passing game even more confusing when defenses appear to be stacking the box.

Small Sample Shakir

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One game is an extremely small sample size, but with Khalil Shakir in the lineup, Josh Allen was feasting in the short game. The Bills completed double-digit passes of ten yards or less in each of their previous four games, with an average of 13.5. Allen hit just eight such targets in the loss to the Texans as Shakir was sidelined with an ankle injury. Again, a very small sample size, but Shakir might be even more important than we thought.

No Deep Hits

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The Bills have two of the top ten players in average targeted air yards, with Mack Hollins at seventh (15.2) and rookie Keon Coleman at ninth (14.4), per NextGenStats. The problem is that Buffalo has only those two for a combined 15 of 33 targets. Hollins has just six catches; everyone ahead of him on the list has more, except rookie Adonai Mitchell, who is tied. As for Coleman, it's only Hollins and Mitchell below him.

Related: Examining the struggles of Bills' wide receivers and how it can be fixed

The Sky Hasn't Fallen

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My social media feeds are full of Bills' doom and gloom, which is understandable coming off a pair of losses. That said, things aren't nearly as bad as they could be thanks to a poor AFC East trio behind Buffalo. If the Bills win next Monday, they enter Week 6 hosting the Tennessee Titans with a 1.5-game lead in the division, with head-to-head wins over the Jets and the Dolphins. Sitting with that type of early stranglehold on at worst the No. 4 seed in the AFC and a home playoff game is still a very good place to be.

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