Very little went well for Josh Allen in a frustrating game on Thursday evening versus the Houston Texans.
Yet he came close to driving the Bills to a win before an interception in the final minute sealed their fate in a 23-19 loss.
Allen took consecutive sacks on the Bills’ last drive, leading to a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) gained significant yardage on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
Following a pre-snap infraction created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute remaining.
“We had a opportunity to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a solid job of hanging tough and our defense bailed us out a couple of times. We’ve got find a way, and we didn’t.”
It was tough for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a career-high on eight occasions and pressured four additional instances. Allen passed for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after producing six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers last week.
“When they hit our quarterback 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach Sean McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It’s just not a safe way to compete and it’s not a smart way to preserve our quarterback 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 landed on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being contacted so many times on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I ran into a couple myself. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I was going backwards.”
Allen surrendered 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half tackles for loss to top the Texans. His second one came when he nearly sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and Anderson got up and pursued him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt early in the third.
The Bills competed for a second straight game without wideout Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was earlier held out for the opening drive of a loss to the Patriots in the fifth week after also being late for a team session.
No change. We’re just taking 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 went with the players that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir led the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
Allen was frustrated that the team were unable to execute down the stretch.
In the end, we’ve got execute, and we didn’t do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “No matter the scenario and any condition, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”
