Allen Sacked Eight Times as Final-Minute Pickoff Dooms Buffalo in Loss to Houston

Very little went well for Josh Allen in a tough contest Thursday night versus the Houston Texans.

Yet he came close to willing the Bills to a victory before an interception in the final minute ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.

Allen endured back-to-back sacks on the team's last drive, resulting in a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) gained significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.

After a false-start penalty led to a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute remaining.

We possessed a chance to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”

Proved difficult for the signal-caller to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and zero scores after accounting for six TDs in a win over Tampa Bay the previous week.

“When they hit our QB a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach Sean 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 keep our field general healthy for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”

Josh Allen was slow to get up after a sack in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was OK and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being hit so many times during the game.

It's unpleasant,” he said. “I encountered a few myself. I need to be better at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I found myself going backwards.”

Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half tackles for loss to top the Houston defense. His second one occurred when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and the defender rose and pursued him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt in the third quarter.

Buffalo competed for a second straight game without receiver Keon Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was earlier benched for the first series of a defeat to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being late for a team session.

No change. We’re just approaching it day by day,” the coach said. “I thought he had a better week, but we’re taking it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”

Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.

The quarterback was disappointed that the team couldn’t make plays down the stretch.

“Ultimately, we’ve got perform, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever scenario and whatever condition, we need to discover a solution, and we came up short.”