Josh Allen Taken Down 8 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.
Yet he nearly managed to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an late pick in the final minute sealed their fate in a 23-19 loss.
Allen took back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) gained 44 yards on a short pass from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
Following a false-start penalty led to a fourth down situation for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's pass at the 9-yard line with under half a minute left.
“We had a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Allen said. “Our team performed a solid job of hanging tough and our defensive unit bailed us out a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”
It was difficult for Allen to get anything going on a night he was sacked a career-high eight times and hit four other times. Allen passed for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for six touchdowns in a victory over the Buccaneers last week.
“When they pressure our quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach Sean McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It is not a healthy way to compete and it isn't a smart way to keep our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Allen was slow to get up after a tackle in the first half. He said he was OK and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being contacted so many times on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a couple myself. I’ve got to be better at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I found myself going backwards.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to lead the Houston defense. Another sack came when he nearly sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and the defender rose and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills competed for a second consecutive matchup absent 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 earlier benched for the first series of a loss to New England in the fifth week after also being late for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it day by day,” McDermott said. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
Allen was disappointed that the Bills couldn’t make plays in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we must execute, and we didn’t do a good job of that tonight,” he concluded. “No matter the situation and whatever circumstance, we need to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
