Allen Sacked Eight Occasions as Final-Minute Pickoff Dooms Bills in Defeat to Texans

Little clicked for Josh Allen in a frustrating game Thursday night against the Houston Texans.

And still he came close to driving the Buffalo Bills to a win before an interception in the last moments ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.

The quarterback took consecutive tackles for loss on the Bills’ last drive, leading to a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) gained significant yardage on a quick throw from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate.

Following a false-start penalty led to a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, a Texans defender intercepted Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds left.

We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “We did a solid job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out a couple of times. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”

It was tough for the signal-caller to get anything going on a evening he was brought down a personal-worst eight times and hit four additional instances. Allen threw for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for six touchdowns in a victory over the Buccaneers the previous week.

“When they pressure our quarterback 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It is not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a good way to keep our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We need to play better.”

Allen was sluggish to get up after a sack in the first half. He indicated he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being contacted so frequently during the game.

It's unpleasant,” he said. “I encountered a couple myself. I need to be more effective at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I found myself going backwards.”

The Bills' QB lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 sacks to top the Houston defense. Another sack occurred when he nearly took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and the defender got up and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to result in 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 tardy to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was previously benched for the first series of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after also being late for a meeting.

“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it day by day,” McDermott 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 opted for the players that give us the best chance.”

Shakir led the Bills with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.

Allen was disappointed that the team couldn’t execute in crucial moments.

In the end, we must execute, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he said. “Whatever situation and any circumstance, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
Kristina Marquez
Kristina Marquez

Especialista en marketing digital con más de 10 años de experiencia ayudando a empresas a crecer en línea.