Josh Allen Sacked Eight Times as Final-Minute Pickoff Dooms Bills in Loss to Texans

Very little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing contest Thursday night against the Houston Texans.

And still he came close to willing the Bills to a victory before an interception in the last moments ended their hopes in a close defeat.

Allen took back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.

Following a false-start penalty created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off Allen’s throw at the 9-yard line with under half a minute left.

We possessed a chance to come out on top there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defense saved us a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”

Proved tough for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and pressured four other times. Allen threw for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after producing six touchdowns in a victory over the Buccaneers the previous week.

Whenever they hit our quarterback a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It is not a healthy way to play and it’s not a smart way to keep our field general in good shape for the rest of the season. We’ve got to play better.”

Josh Allen was slow to rise after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being hit so many times on Thursday.

It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple myself. I need to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself going backwards.”

The Bills' QB lost 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to top the Houston defense. Another sack occurred when he almost sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and Anderson rose and pursued him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.

Buffalo played for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being late for a team session.

No change. We are approaching it day by day,” the coach said. “I thought he had a better week, but we’re taking it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that give us the optimal opportunity.”

Shakir led the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.

Allen was frustrated that the team were unable to execute in crucial moments.

In the end, we must execute, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “No matter the scenario and any condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
Michael Gomez
Michael Gomez

A tech journalist with a passion for exploring emerging digital trends and their impact on modern society.