Little went right for Josh Allen in a tough game on Thursday evening versus 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 23-19 loss.
The quarterback endured consecutive sacks on the team's last drive, resulting in a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
After a false-start penalty created a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, a Texans defender intercepted Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with under half a minute remaining.
We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the end,” Allen stated. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was difficult for Allen to get anything going on a night he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and pressured four other times. Allen threw for 253 yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.
“When they hit our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach Sean McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It’s just not a safe way to play and it isn't a smart way to keep our field general in good shape for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was slow to get up after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was asked about being contacted so frequently during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I encountered a couple personally. I need to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I was losing ground.”
Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half sacks to top the Texans. Another sack occurred when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson got up and pursued him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt early in the third.
Buffalo played for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their last game. He was earlier benched for the opening drive of a loss to New England in Week 5 after also being late for a meeting.
No change. We are approaching it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are taking it step by step. It was not that it was ignored, but we opted for the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was disappointed that the team were unable to execute in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we must execute, and we failed to succeed of that tonight,” he concluded. “No matter the situation and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to find a way, and we came up short.”
