Josh Allen Sacked 8 Times as Final-Minute Interception Seals Fate of Buffalo in Defeat to Houston

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

And still he came close to driving the Buffalo Bills to a win before an interception in the final minute ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.

The quarterback took consecutive sacks on the team's last drive, leading to a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to another teammate.

Following a pre-snap infraction created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with under half a minute left.

We possessed a chance to come out on top there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “We did a solid job of hanging tough and our defense saved us a few instances. We’ve got find a way, and we didn’t.”

It was tough for Allen to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a career-high eight times and pressured four other times. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.

Whenever they pressure our quarterback 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a good way to keep our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”

Josh Allen was sluggish to get up after a sack in the first half. He said he was fine and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” 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 couple myself. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I was going backwards.”

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

The Bills competed for a second straight game absent receiver Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was earlier held out for the opening drive of a defeat to the Patriots in Week 5 after also being late for a meeting.

“Nothing new. We are taking it one day at a time,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a better week, but we are taking it step by step. It was not that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that provide the best chance.”

Khalil Shakir topped the Bills with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.

Allen was frustrated that the Bills were unable to make plays down the stretch.

In the end, we must execute, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he said. “No matter the scenario and any condition, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”
Jeremy Morales
Jeremy Morales

Data analyst and tech writer with a passion for simplifying complex concepts.