Josh Allen Sacked Eight Occasions as Late Interception Dooms Bills in Loss to Texans
Very little clicked for Josh Allen in a frustrating game Thursday night versus the Houston Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to willing the Bills to a victory before an interception in the last moments ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.
Allen took back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ final possession, resulting in a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a lateral to another teammate.
Following a false-start penalty led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's pass at the 9-yard line with under half a minute left.
We possessed a opportunity to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Allen said. “Our team performed a solid job of hanging tough and our defense saved us a couple of times. We’ve got find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved difficult for Allen to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a career-high eight times and pressured four additional instances. Allen threw for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a victory over the Buccaneers the previous week.
“When they hit our QB a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it isn't a good way to keep our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We’ve got to play better.”
Allen was sluggish to get up after a tackle in the first half. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “went a little numb” 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 ran into a couple personally. I need to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I found myself going backwards.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 tackles for loss to top the Texans. Another sack occurred when he nearly sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and the defender rose and chased him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt early in the third.
The Bills played for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Keon 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 loss to New England in the fifth week after additionally being late for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it one day at a time,” the coach noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we’re 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 led the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was disappointed that the Bills were unable to execute down the stretch.
In the end, we must execute, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and any circumstance, we need to find a way, and we didn’t.”