Josh Allen Sacked Eight Times as Late Pickoff Seals Fate of Buffalo in Loss to Texans

Very little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing contest Thursday night versus the Texans.

And still he came close to driving the Buffalo Bills to a win before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a close loss.

Allen endured back-to-back tackles for loss on the Bills’ last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) gained 44 yards on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate.

Following a false-start penalty led to a fourth down situation for the Bills, a Texans defender intercepted Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds left.

We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the end,” Josh Allen stated. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defensive unit bailed us out a couple of times. We must figure it out, and we didn’t.”

Proved difficult for Allen to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a career-high on eight occasions and pressured four other times. Allen threw for 253 yards with two interceptions and zero scores after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over the Buccaneers last week.

Whenever they hit our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It is not a healthy way to compete and it isn't a smart way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We’ve got to play better.”

Allen was sluggish to rise after a tackle in the first half. He said 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 contacted so frequently on Thursday.

It's unpleasant,” he said. “I ran into a few personally. I need to be more effective at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I was losing ground.”

The Bills' QB lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 tackles for loss to top the Texans. Another sack came when he nearly sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson got up and pursued him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt in the third quarter.

Buffalo competed for a second straight game without receiver Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was previously held out for the first series of a defeat to New England in the fifth week after also being delayed for a team session.

“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it one day at a time,” McDermott said. “I thought he had a better week, but we’re taking it step by step. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the guys that give us the best chance.”

Khalil Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.

Allen was frustrated that the Bills were unable to make plays down the stretch.

In the end, we’ve got execute, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he said. “No matter the situation and whatever condition, we need to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
Jessica Dean
Jessica Dean

A professional poker player and writer, sharing insights from over a decade of experience in tournaments across Europe.