Allen Taken Down 8 Occasions as Late Pickoff Dooms Buffalo in Defeat to Houston

Very little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a tough contest on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.

Yet he nearly managed to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an interception in the final minute sealed their fate in a 23-19 defeat.

The quarterback took back-to-back tackles for loss on the Bills’ last drive, leading to a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.

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

“We had a chance to win it there at the end,” Josh Allen stated. “Our team performed a solid job of hanging tough and our defensive unit 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 night he was brought down a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four other times. Allen threw for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after producing six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.

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

Allen was sluggish to rise after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was fine and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being contacted so many times during the game.

It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I encountered a few personally. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I was losing ground.”

The Bills' QB lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half sacks to lead the Houston defense. Another sack occurred when he nearly sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson got up and pursued him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt early in the third.

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 squad gathering before their previous contest. He was earlier benched for the first series of a defeat to New England in Week 5 after additionally being late for a meeting.

“Nothing new. We are taking it day by day,” the coach said. “I felt he had a better week, but we’re handling it one day at a time. It was not that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that give us the best chance.”

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

The quarterback was frustrated that the team were unable to make plays down the stretch.

In the end, we must perform, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and whatever condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”