Allen Sacked 8 Times as Late Pickoff Seals Fate of Bills in Loss to Houston

Little went right for Josh Allen in a tough game Thursday night against the Texans.

Yet he nearly managed to driving the Bills to a victory before an interception in the final minute ended their hopes in a close defeat.

The quarterback endured consecutive sacks on the team's final possession, resulting in a long fourth down, but Buffalo (with seven wins) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who flipped a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.

After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth down situation for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds remaining.

“We had a opportunity to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen stated. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defensive unit saved us a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”

Proved difficult for the signal-caller to get anything going on a evening he was brought down a personal-worst on eight occasions and pressured four other times. Allen passed for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six touchdowns in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.

“When they pressure our QB a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It is not a healthy way to play and it’s not a smart way to preserve our field general in good shape for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”

Allen was slow to get up after a tackle in the first half. He indicated he was fine and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being hit so frequently on Thursday.

It's unpleasant,” he said. “I ran into a couple personally. I’ve got to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”

The Bills' QB surrendered 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to top the Texans. Another sack occurred when he almost sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson got up and chased him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.

The Bills competed for a second consecutive matchup absent receiver Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier held out for the opening drive of a loss to the Patriots in the fifth week after also being delayed for a team session.

“Nothing new. We are approaching it one day at a time,” the coach said. “I felt he had a improved week, but we’re handling it step by step. It was not that it was ignored, but we went with the players that provide the best chance.”

Khalil Shakir topped the Bills with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.

Allen was disappointed that the team were unable to make plays in crucial moments.

In the end, we must execute, and we didn’t do a good job of that this evening,” he concluded. “No matter the scenario and whatever condition, we need to find a way, and we didn’t.”
David Hernandez
David Hernandez

A tech journalist and digital strategist with over a decade of experience covering emerging technologies and their impact on society.