Allen Sacked Eight Occasions as Late Pickoff Seals Fate of Buffalo in Defeat to Texans

Very little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing contest Thursday night versus the Texans.

And still he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a win before an late pick in the final minute ended their hopes in a 23-19 loss.

The quarterback took consecutive sacks on the team's final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) gained significant yardage on a quick throw from Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.

Following a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's pass at the 9-yard line with under half a minute remaining.

“We had a opportunity to win it there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen stated. “We did a solid job of staying in it and our defense saved us a few instances. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”

It was tough for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a night he was sacked a personal-worst eight times and pressured four additional instances. Allen passed for 253 yards with two interceptions and zero scores after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over the Buccaneers last week.

Whenever they pressure our quarterback 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It’s just not a safe way to play and it’s not a smart way to keep our field general healthy for the rest of the season. We need to improve our performance.”

Josh Allen was sluggish to get up after a tackle in the first half. He said he was OK and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being contacted so frequently on Thursday.

“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I encountered a few personally. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”

Allen lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to top the Houston defense. His second one came when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and Anderson got up and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.

The Bills competed for a second straight game without wideout Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier held out for the first series of a defeat to New England in the fifth week after additionally being delayed for a meeting.

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

Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.

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

“Ultimately, we must perform, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he concluded. “Whatever situation and any condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”