The Houston Texans defense lived in the Buffalo Bills' backfield during a Thursday Night Football game, harassing Josh Allen for 60 minutes to emerge with an enormous 23-19 victory. For evidence of how well the unit played and how much confidence DeMeco Ryans has in them, Houston opted to give Allen the ball late instead of attempting a 4th-and-2—then backed it up by authoring the game-sealing stop.
Allen, who is usually the one delivering the hits while scrambling and conducting goal-line runs, was harassed and hurried all night long. For only the third time in his career he failed to account for a single touchdown while having multiple turnovers. The eight sacks posted by the Texans tied a career-high suffered by the reigning NFL MVP.
Speaking to the media after the loss, Bills coach Sean McDermott pointed out that getting hit that often is not a recipe for success.
"They had 12 hits on Josh, eight sacks. That's not a healthy formula right there," McDermott said. "It's not a healthy way to play or a healthy way to keep our quarterback healthy through the remainder of the season."
"That's where the hits come, second down and long turns into third down and long, and that's the unhealthy formula I'm talking about, and Josh takes too many hits. So we've got to figure that piece out," McDermott continued.
McDermott would add that he believes in his offensive staff. And that seems pretty reasonable as only a few days ago the unit posted 44 points against a very good team in Tampa Bay. A lot of teams look out of rhythm and have a hard time blocking the Texans and Allen himself took some responsibility for contributing to some of the eight sacks.
"It's not fun. I ran into a couple myself," Allen said. "I have to be better with throwing the ball away, living to see another down, letting us play some situational football and pinning them deep. Too many times, I was going backwards, and I have to be better on that."
With the loss Buffalo is now 7-4. Their hopes of catching the New England Patriots in the AFC East are getting slimmer. The good news is that they currently hold the No. 6 seed in the AFC as a crowded field in the hunt—including the now 6-5 Texans—give chase.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Sean McDermott Has Honest Admission After Watching Josh Allen Get Sacked 8 Times.
