Allen Sacked Eight Occasions as Final-Minute Pickoff Seals Fate of Buffalo in Defeat to Texans

Little went right for Josh Allen in a frustrating contest Thursday night against the Texans.

Yet he nearly managed to willing the Bills to a victory before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a close loss.

The quarterback endured back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ last drive, resulting in a long fourth down, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who flipped a lateral to another teammate.

After a pre-snap infraction created a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds remaining.

“We had a chance to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen stated. “Our team performed a solid job of hanging tough and our defense bailed us out a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”

Proved tough for Allen to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and pressured four other times. Allen passed for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over Tampa Bay last week.

“When they hit our QB a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It is not a healthy way to play and it’s not a good way to keep our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”

Allen was slow to get up after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being hit so frequently on Thursday.

It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple myself. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I found myself losing ground.”

The Bills' QB lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to lead the Houston defense. Another sack came when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and the defender rose and pursued him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt in the third quarter.

The Bills played for a second consecutive matchup without receiver Keon Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was tardy to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was previously benched for the opening drive of a defeat to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being delayed for a meeting.

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

Shakir topped the Bills with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.

Allen was disappointed that the Bills were unable to execute down the stretch.

In the end, we’ve got perform, and we didn’t do a good job of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the scenario and any circumstance, we’ve got to find a way, and we came up short.”
Gail Thomas
Gail Thomas

A seasoned UK gambling analyst with over a decade of experience in reviewing online casinos and providing expert betting strategies.