Buffalo Bills The Bills had the weakest offense of the 12 playoff teams during the regular season; last in both yards and points. And yet ...

... The may outscore a couple of the other offenses playing this weekend and spring the upset. Their defense is one of the best in the postseason -- only New England allowed fewer yards or points -- and they're facing one of the postseason's two weakest defenses. Only Seattle, at just under 25 points per game, allowed more points than Houston (24) among the playoff teams. Buffalo should be good for 2 touchdowns, and 3 is possible, perhaps stealing a 24-21 type of game. ... Josh Allen is very likely to ...

This report is taken from today's Week 18 edition of Fantasy Index Weekly (for the wildcard round of the NFL playoffs). The newsletter includes our player rankings for the wildcard games, plus 7 pages of matchup previews, plus stat projections and custom rankings for the games being played this weekend.

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This edition is focused only on the wildcard teams. If you are looking for rankings that include all players in the playoffs -- and which are based on the players' projected total value through the entirety of the NFL playoffs -- then order the Redrafter instead.

have a hand in whatever touchdowns they score. Houston during the regular season was nearly three times as likely to give up touchdowns on passes (33) rather than runs (12); it was more than 3-to-1 (31-9) before going through the motions in a loss to Derrick Henry and the Titans last week. Only three teams allowed more passing scores than the Texans, and only three allowed more passing yards (281 per game). Allen averaged just 206 passing yards in his 15 games (setting aside his Week 17 cameo), but was over 250 in four games against weak secondaries (Jets, Giants, Browns and Dolphins) and this is one of those types of matchups. Good spot for him to be up around that area in passing yards, with 1-2 touchdowns. And Allen is one of the league's most prolific running quarterbacks, up at 34 yards per game (only Lamar Jackson and Kyler Murray ran for more yards). At 6-foot-5 and 237 pounds, he's gigantic, and designed runs are a huge part of the offense. Especially around the goal line. Buffalo had 13 rushing touchdowns during the season, and Allen accounted for 9 of them. Roughly speaking, about a 70 percent chance that Allen is responsible for any rushing scores. With passing production and rushing yards factored in, and a favorable matchup, he should outperform a good chunk of the more highly regarded quarterbacks playing this week. Allen threw for only 84 yards in the 2018 game at Houston, but he was knocked out of that one early in the third quarter -- and was making his fifth NFL start at the time. He ran for 20 yards that day. ... The conventional running game doesn't look quite as good. Houston ranked 25th in run defense during the season, but was more of a slightly below-average group until the final month of the season -- when it allowed over 400 rushing yards and 4 TDs in a pair of games against rushing leader Derrick Henry. Set aside those games (and 263 yards in a blowout loss to Baltimore) and Houston in its other 13 contests allowed 98 rushing yards per game. You can't just forget those worse games, and Houston's run defense definitely slipped after losing J.J. Watt to injury. But it's not a terrible group, and Watt is expected to be available for this game. Buffalo ranked 8th in rushing, at 128 yards per game, but it's down under 100 once Allen's yards are removed from the equation, and with just 4 rushing scores by the rest of the team. Devin Singletary should play close to full-time, at least. Once he was over an early-season hamstring injury, he dominated the backfield, averaging 75 rushing yards in his final eight games. He averaged 17 more as a receiver in those contests, with as many touchdowns receiving (2) as rushing. He was effective, up at 5.1 yards per attempt, a yard and a half better than Frank Gore (3.6). Gore wasn't even that good the second half of the season, averaging under 2.5 in six of his final eight games (71 carries for just 177 yards in those contests). The 36-year-old might give Singletary a breather at some point, but that's about it. He played only 2 snaps in Buffalo's last meaningful game, the Week 16 loss at New England. So Singletary's touches and all-around yardage production should be in line with his usual averages. He doesn't look good as far as rushing scores -- Allen is more likely to account for those -- but some chance for him to catch a touchdown. The Texans allowed 8 scoring receptions by running backs, 2 more than anyone but Detroit (also 8). ... With it being a favorable situation for the passing game, John Brown and Cole Beasley both have potential. In a passing offense that averaged just 216 yards in its first 15 games (before Allen and those wideouts barely played in the finale), Brown averaged 71 yards and Beasley 52, combining for nearly 60 percent of the passing game. Each caught 6 touchdowns (and Brown threw 1) of Buffalo's 21 on the season. Brown will run deeper routes; he averaged 14.7 yards per catch on the season, finishing with nearly 300 more yards than Beasley (1,060 to 778) despite catching only 5 more passes (72-67). Beasley caught all 6 of his touchdowns in his last 10 games, and was especially busy in his last five -- three of his five 6-catch games on the season in those contests. Buffalo shouldn't have another significant wide receiver. Isaiah McKenzie will get No. 3 snaps, but that worked out to no more than 3 catches in any game. His two games with even 35 yards were way back in the first five weeks of the season. (Duke Williams went over 100 yards last week, with Brown and Beasley sitting out, but he wasn't even active the previous, meaningful game -- won't necessarily dress for this one.) Will be Brown and Beasley hogging production, and decent chance one of them scores. Houston allowed 18 touchdowns to wide receivers, more than all but one team (Philadelphia) still playing, while two-thirds of Buffalo's touchdown passes (14 of 21) went to wideouts. ... Rookie Dawson Knox is the main tight end, and he has some receiving ability. He had a nifty 33-yard reception against New England, and had a catch of over 20 yards in six other games during the season. But he wasn't actually a big part of the passing game, catching only 1 ball in each of his last three contests, and just 28 on the season. His 2 TDs came against two of the league's worst defenses (Bengals and Dolphins). Houston allowed 6 touchdowns to tight ends during the season, an average type of number. ... Stephen Hauschka made just under 80 percent of his field goal attempts (22 of 28), missing 2 extra points during the season. Even if he'd made every kick, though, he'd have averaged just over 7 kicking points; the offense didn't get him on the field enough. Only four teams allowed fewer field goals during the season than Houston (21). The Texans allowed twice as many extra points (42), which works out to just 6.6 kicking points per game. ... The Bills Defense ranked in the top 10 in interceptions (14) and top 12 in sacks (44); it was average in fumble recoveries (9). Deshaun Watson has always been a favorable matchup for sacks, sometimes because of protection issues but also because he'll tend to hold the ball, scrambling around and looking to extend plays. He's been sacked 125 times in 38 career games -- 3.3 per game. Watson will occasionally force some throws, with 12 interceptions this season, including 11 in his last 10 games. Just one defensive or special teams score on each side of the ledger, though; only five teams allowed fewer such touchdowns than Houston. Buffalo's lone return touchdown was flukey, picking up a failed onside kick attempt against Miami and running it in. They do have one of the league's more accomplished return men in Andre Roberts. He was an All-Pro a year ago with the Jets, scoring on punt and kick return touchdowns. No touchdowns this year, but he did have 66- and 44-yard returns during the season. Roberts might not be fully healthy, however; he was limited in practice the last two days with a foot injury.