Josh Allen Taken Down Eight Times as Late Pickoff Seals Fate of Buffalo in Loss to Houston

Very little went well for Josh Allen in a frustrating contest Thursday night versus the Houston Texans.

And still he came close to driving the Buffalo Bills to a win before an interception in the last moments sealed their fate in a 23-19 loss.

Allen endured back-to-back sacks on the team's last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate.

After a false-start penalty created a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, a Texans defender intercepted Allen’s throw at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds remaining.

We possessed a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen said. “Our team performed a solid job of hanging tough and our defense bailed us out a couple of times. We must figure it out, and we didn’t.”

It was tough for Allen to establish rhythm on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four other times. Allen passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after producing six touchdowns in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.

“When they pressure our quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It’s just not a safe way to compete and it isn't a smart way to keep our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”

Allen was slow to rise after a sack in the first half. He said he was OK and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed 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 few personally. I need to be better at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I was losing ground.”

Allen lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half sacks to top the Texans. His second one occurred when he almost sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and Anderson got up and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.

Buffalo competed for a second straight game without receiver Keon Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their last game. He was earlier benched for the first series of a defeat to the Patriots in Week 5 after also being delayed for a meeting.

No change. We’re just approaching it one day at a time,” the coach noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we’re handling it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the players that give us the best chance.”

Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a score.

Allen was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t make plays in crucial moments.

“Ultimately, we must execute, and we didn’t do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever scenario and any circumstance, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”
Joseph Walker
Joseph Walker

A tech enthusiast and cultural commentator with over a decade of experience writing about digital innovations and societal impacts.