Josh Allen Taken Down 8 Times as Final-Minute Pickoff Seals Fate of Bills in Loss to Houston
Very little went right for Josh Allen in a tough contest on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.
And still he came close to driving the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an interception in the final minute sealed their fate in a close loss.
Allen endured consecutive sacks on the Bills’ final possession, leading to a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) gained 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's throw at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.
“We had a chance to come out on top there at the end,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”
Proved tough for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst eight times and pressured four additional instances. Allen threw for 253 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.
Whenever they pressure our QB a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach McDermott commented. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It is not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a good way to preserve our quarterback in good shape for the rest of the season. We need to improve our performance.”
Allen was slow to rise after a sack in the first half. He said he was fine and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being contacted so frequently during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a few personally. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I was losing ground.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 sacks to top the Houston defense. His second one came when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and the defender rose and pursued him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup without receiver Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was earlier held out for the opening drive of a defeat to New England in Week 5 after additionally being delayed for a team session.
“Nothing new. We’re just taking it one day at a time,” the coach said. “I felt he had a improved week, but we’re taking it one day at a time. It was not that it was ignored, but we opted for the players that give us the best chance.”
Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 yards and a score.
The quarterback was frustrated that the team couldn’t execute in crucial moments.
In the end, we must perform, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever scenario and any condition, we’ve got to find a way, and we didn’t.”