Josh Allen Taken Down Eight Occasions as Late Interception Dooms Buffalo in Defeat to Houston

Little went well for Josh Allen in a disappointing game on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.

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

Allen endured consecutive tackles for loss on the Bills’ last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (with seven wins) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.

After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, Calen Bullock intercepted the quarterback's pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.

“We had 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 bailed us out a few instances. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”

Proved difficult for Allen to establish rhythm on a evening he was sacked a career-high eight times and pressured four other times. Allen passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after accounting for six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.

Whenever they hit our quarterback 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott said. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It’s just not a safe way to play 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.”

Josh Allen was slow to rise after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was fine and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being contacted so many times on Thursday.

It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple personally. I need to be more effective at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself going backwards.”

Allen lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half sacks to top the Houston defense. Another sack occurred when he almost sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and Anderson got up and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.

The Bills competed for a second straight game absent receiver Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was tardy to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was earlier benched for the first series of a defeat to the Patriots in the fifth week after additionally being late for a team session.

“Nothing new. We are approaching it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a better week, but we are taking it step by step. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”

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

Allen was frustrated that the team couldn’t make plays down the stretch.

“Ultimately, we’ve got perform, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the situation and any circumstance, we need to find a way, and we didn’t.”