Josh Allen Taken Down Eight Occasions as Final-Minute Pickoff Seals Fate of Buffalo in Loss to Texans
Little went right for Josh Allen in a frustrating game Thursday night against the Texans.
Yet he came close to driving the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an interception in the last moments sealed their fate in a 23-19 loss.
The quarterback took consecutive tackles for loss on the Bills’ last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth down situation for the Bills, a Texans defender intercepted the quarterback's throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.
We possessed a chance to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a good 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.”
It was difficult for the signal-caller to get anything going on a evening he was brought down a personal-worst on eight occasions and pressured four other times. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.
Whenever they pressure our QB a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach Sean McDermott commented. “I don’t like that stat at all. It is not a healthy way to compete and it isn't a smart way to keep our field general in good shape for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Allen was sluggish to rise after a sack in the first half. He indicated he was OK and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so many times during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I encountered a couple personally. I need to be more effective at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”
Allen lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half sacks to top the Texans. Another sack came when he nearly sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson got up and chased him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt early in the third.
The Bills played for a second consecutive matchup without receiver Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was earlier benched for the opening drive of a loss to New England in Week 5 after also being late for a team session.
No change. We are taking it one day at a time,” McDermott said. “I felt he had a better week, but we’re taking it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we opted for the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir topped the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
Allen was frustrated that the Bills were unable to make plays in crucial moments.
In the end, we must execute, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he concluded. “No matter the scenario and any condition, we’ve got to find a way, and we came up short.”