Allen Sacked Eight Occasions as Final-Minute Pickoff Seals Fate of Buffalo in Defeat to Texans

Very little went right for Josh Allen in a frustrating game Thursday night versus the Texans.

And still he nearly managed to driving the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an late pick in the last moments sealed their fate in a close loss.

Allen endured back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) gained significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.

Following a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for Buffalo, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's throw at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds left.

We possessed a chance to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen stated. “We did a solid job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out a couple of times. We must find a way, and we didn’t.”

Proved difficult for the signal-caller to get anything going on a night he was sacked a personal-worst 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 the previous week.

Whenever they hit our quarterback 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It’s just not a healthy way to play and it’s not a good way to keep our field general in good shape for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”

Allen was slow to rise after a tackle in the first half. He said he was OK and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so frequently during the game.

It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I ran into a few myself. I’ve got to be more effective at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I found myself going backwards.”

The Bills' QB surrendered 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 sacks to top the Texans. Another sack occurred when he almost sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson rose and pursued him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt in the third quarter.

Buffalo competed for a second straight game absent wideout Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a defeat to the Patriots in the fifth week after also being late for a meeting.

No change. We’re just taking it one day at a time,” the coach said. “I thought he had a improved week, but we’re taking it step by step. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the guys that provide the best chance.”

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

The quarterback was frustrated that the team were unable to make plays in crucial moments.

In the end, we must perform, and we didn’t do a good job of that this evening,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”