When the Bills faced the Giants in Week 4, Buffalo's stout secondary held Odell Beckham to just five catches for 38 yards in a 24-10 loss to New York.
Nine weeks later, the playoff-hopeful Bills are gearing up to face another pass-catcher making a Beckham-like impact on his team: Houston's DeAndre Hopkins.
"This guy is kinda like Odell Beckham with the hands," said coach Rex Ryan, per the team's official website. "He can make every catch: one-handed, two-handed. He's super-competitive going after the football. He's a big guy. He blocks. Really a compete receiver. One of the best receivers in the game."
Third league-wide in receiving yardage (1,081), Hopkins also ranks fourth in catches (81) and first among NFL wideouts with a whopping 144 targets. Texans quarterbacks -- especially Brian Hoyer -- have been wise enough to look his way repeatedly, with Hopkins tallying at least 11 targets in every game this season.
Buffalo ranks a lowly 22nd against the pass and struggled last Sunday against Jeremy Maclin, the Chiefs wideout who fried otherwise-steady rookie corner Ronald Darby for 160 yards and a touchdown off nine catches. That outburst marked a season-high for Maclin, who came in averaging 77.2 yards per game. So what will Hopkins accomplish after rolling into Sunday's critical tilt averaging 98.3 yards per outing?
Rex is right on another front, too: Like Beckham, Hopkins has been practicing the art of one-handed circus catches, something he perfected in his Week 11 duel with Jets All-Pro cover man Darrelle Revis:
"He has the ability to make that one-handed catch,"Texans coach Bill O'Brien said, per the Houston Chronicle. "I really only coached one other guy that was able to do that like that and that's Randy Moss. Hop is -- when he makes those types of catches every time I see them, and he does them all the time at practice, it's always something that definitely opens your eyes because to have the ability to do that. He has very, very strong hands, so he has the ability to make one-handed catches like that because of the size of his hands and the strength of his hands. It's a big attribute of his."
