Josh Allen Sacked 8 Times as Late Interception Dooms Bills in Defeat to Houston

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

And still he came close to driving the Bills to a win before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a close loss.

Allen took consecutive sacks on the Bills’ last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a quick throw from Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate.

After a false-start penalty led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds left.

“We had a chance to win it there at the end,” Josh Allen stated. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defensive unit saved us a couple of times. We must figure it out, and we didn’t.”

Proved tough for Allen to establish rhythm on a night he was brought down a career-high on eight occasions and pressured four other times. The QB passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after producing six TDs in a win over Tampa Bay the previous week.

Whenever they pressure our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach Sean McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It is not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a smart way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We’ve got to play better.”

Josh Allen was slow to get up after a sack in the first half. He said he was OK and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was asked about being contacted so many times during the game.

It's unpleasant,” he said. “I ran into a couple myself. I’ve got to be more effective at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I found myself going backwards.”

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

Buffalo competed for a second straight game absent wideout Keon Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a squad gathering before their last game. He was previously held out for the first series of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being delayed for a meeting.

“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it day by day,” the coach noted. “I thought he had a improved week, but we’re handling it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we opted for the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”

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

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

In the end, we’ve got perform, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he concluded. “Whatever situation and whatever condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”