Josh Allen Taken Down Eight Times as Final-Minute Pickoff Seals Fate of Buffalo in Defeat to Texans

Little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a tough game on Thursday evening against the Texans.

Yet he nearly managed to driving the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an interception in the final minute ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.

Allen took back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ final possession, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.

Following a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off Allen’s pass at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds remaining.

“We had a opportunity to win it there at the end,” Allen said. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”

Proved difficult for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a night he was brought down a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four other times. Allen threw for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six TDs in a win over Tampa Bay the previous week.

Whenever they pressure our QB a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It is not a safe way to compete and it’s not a good way to preserve our field general healthy for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”

Allen was slow to get up after a tackle in the first half. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being contacted so many times during the game.

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

The Bills' QB lost 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to top the Texans. Another sack came when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and the defender rose and pursued him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt in the third quarter.

The Bills competed for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was previously benched for the opening drive of a defeat to the Patriots in the fifth week after also being late for a team session.

“Nothing new. We are approaching it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we’re taking it step by step. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that give us the best chance.”

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

The quarterback was disappointed that the team were unable to execute in crucial moments.

“Ultimately, we must execute, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and any condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
Taylor King
Taylor King

Elara Vance is a renewable energy consultant with over a decade of experience in grid modernization and sustainable infrastructure projects across Europe.