Josh Allen Sacked 8 Occasions as Late Pickoff Dooms Buffalo in Loss to Texans

Little clicked for Josh Allen in a tough contest on Thursday evening versus the Texans.

And still he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an late pick in the last moments sealed their fate in a close defeat.

The quarterback endured back-to-back tackles for loss on the Bills’ final possession, resulting in a long fourth down, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.

After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.

We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of staying in it and our defensive unit bailed us out a couple of times. We must figure it out, and we didn’t.”

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

Whenever they pressure our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It is not a healthy way to compete and it isn't a smart way to preserve our field general in good shape for the remaining games. We need to play better.”

Josh Allen was sluggish to get up after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He said he was OK and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being contacted so many times on Thursday.

“It’s not fun,” he said. “I encountered a few myself. I need to be better at disposing of the football. Too many times, I was going backwards.”

Allen surrendered 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to lead the Houston defense. His second one occurred when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and the defender got up and pursued him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt early in the third.

Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup absent receiver Keon Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a loss to New England in Week 5 after also being late for a meeting.

“Nothing new. We are approaching it day by day,” the coach said. “I thought he had a better week, but we are taking it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that give us the optimal opportunity.”

Shakir topped the Bills with eight receptions for 110 yards and Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.

The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills were unable to execute in crucial moments.

In the end, we’ve got execute, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he concluded. “Whatever situation and any condition, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”