Allen Taken Down Eight Occasions as Final-Minute Interception Seals Fate of Buffalo in Defeat to Texans

Very little went well for Josh Allen in a frustrating contest Thursday night against the Texans.

Yet he came close to driving the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an interception in the last moments sealed their fate in a 23-19 defeat.

The quarterback endured consecutive tackles for loss on the Bills’ final possession, resulting in a long fourth down, but Buffalo (with seven wins) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.

After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, a Texans defender picked off Allen’s pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute remaining.

“We had a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defensive unit saved us a couple of times. We must figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”

Proved difficult for Allen to establish rhythm on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and pressured four other times. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after accounting for six touchdowns in a victory over the Buccaneers the previous week.

Whenever they pressure our QB 12 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’s not a good way to preserve our field general in good shape for the rest of the season. We’ve got to play better.”

Allen was slow to rise after a sack in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was OK and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being hit so frequently during the game.

“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a few personally. I need to be more effective at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I found myself losing ground.”

The Bills' QB lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to top the Texans. His second one occurred when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson rose and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt early in the third.

Buffalo played for a second consecutive matchup absent receiver Keon Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their last game. He was previously benched for the first series of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after also being late for a team session.

No change. We are taking it day by day,” McDermott said. “I thought he had a better 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.”

Khalil Shakir topped the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.

Allen was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t execute down the stretch.

In the end, we must execute, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he concluded. “No matter the scenario and whatever circumstance, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”