Josh Allen Taken Down 8 Times as Late Interception Seals Fate of Bills in Loss to Houston

Little went well for Josh Allen in a frustrating contest on Thursday evening versus the Houston Texans.

And still he nearly managed to driving the Bills to a victory before an interception in the final minute sealed their fate in a 23-19 defeat.

Allen took back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) gained significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.

Following a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for the Bills, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s throw at the 9-yard line with under half a minute left.

We possessed a chance to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Allen said. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defense saved us a few instances. We must figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”

Proved difficult for Allen to get anything going on a night he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four other times. Allen threw for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.

“When they pressure our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It is not a safe way to compete and it’s not a good way to keep our field general in good shape for the rest of the season. We need to improve our performance.”

Allen was sluggish to rise after a tackle in the first half. He indicated he was OK and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being hit so frequently during the game.

“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I ran into a few personally. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I was losing ground.”

The Bills' QB lost 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 sacks to lead the Houston defense. His second one came when he nearly took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and Anderson rose and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt in the third quarter.

Buffalo played for a second straight game without receiver Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their last game. He was previously benched for the opening drive of a defeat to the Patriots in Week 5 after also being delayed for a team session.

“Nothing new. We are approaching it one day at a time,” McDermott noted. “I thought he had a better week, but we’re handling it one day at a time. It was not that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that provide the best chance.”

Shakir led the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.

Allen was disappointed that the team were unable to execute in crucial moments.

In the end, we must execute, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he said. “Whatever scenario and whatever circumstance, we need to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
Matthew Smith
Matthew Smith

A cultural anthropologist and writer passionate about documenting cross-border narratives and fostering international dialogue.