Allen Taken Down Eight Times as Final-Minute Pickoff Dooms Bills in Defeat to Texans

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

And still he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an late pick in the final minute ended their hopes in a 23-19 loss.

The quarterback took back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who flipped a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.

After a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for the Bills, a Texans defender intercepted the quarterback's pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds remaining.

We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defense bailed us out a couple of times. We must find a way, and we didn’t.”

Proved difficult for Allen to get anything going on a night he was brought down a personal-worst 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 Tampa Bay the previous week.

“When 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 safe way to play and it’s not a smart 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 opening two quarters. He indicated he was OK and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being hit so frequently during the game.

It's unpleasant,” he said. “I encountered a couple myself. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I was going backwards.”

The Bills' QB lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 tackles for loss to lead the Houston defense. Another sack occurred when he nearly sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson got up and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.

Buffalo played for a second consecutive matchup absent receiver 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 held out for the first series of a loss to New England in Week 5 after additionally being late for a meeting.

No change. We’re just taking it one day at a time,” the coach noted. “I felt he had a better week, but we’re taking it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the players that provide the best chance.”

Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.

The quarterback was disappointed that the Bills were unable to make plays in crucial moments.

“Ultimately, we’ve got perform, and we didn’t do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever situation and whatever circumstance, we need to discover a solution, and we came up short.”