Little went right for Josh Allen in a frustrating contest on Thursday evening against the Texans.
And still he nearly managed to driving the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an interception in the last moments sealed their fate in a 23-19 defeat.
Allen took consecutive sacks on the team's final possession, leading to a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (with seven wins) gained significant yardage on a quick throw from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
Following a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's throw at the 9-yard line with under half a minute left.
“We had a chance to win it there at the end,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a solid job of hanging tough and our defensive unit bailed us out a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved difficult for Allen to establish rhythm on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst eight times and pressured four other times. Allen threw for 253 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six touchdowns in a victory over the Buccaneers the previous week.
“When they hit 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 healthy way to play and it’s not a good way to keep our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to get up 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 awkwardly. He was asked about being contacted so frequently during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple myself. I need to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I was losing ground.”
Allen lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 sacks to top the Houston defense. His second one came when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and the defender rose and pursued him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo played for a second straight game absent wideout Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was late to a squad gathering before their last game. He was earlier benched for the first series of a defeat to New England in Week 5 after also being late for a meeting.
No change. We’re just approaching it day by day,” McDermott said. “I felt he had a improved week, but we’re handling it step by step. It was not that it was ignored, but we went with the players 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 touchdown.
Allen was frustrated that the Bills were unable to execute in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we must execute, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he concluded. “Whatever situation and any condition, we need to find a way, and we didn’t.”
