Little went right for Josh Allen in a frustrating contest Thursday night against the Houston Texans.
Yet he came close to driving the Bills to a victory before an interception in the final minute sealed their fate in a 23-19 defeat.
The quarterback endured back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
Following a false-start penalty led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.
We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the end,” Allen stated. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defensive unit bailed us out a few instances. We must figure it out, and we didn’t.”
It was tough for Allen to establish rhythm on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst eight times and pressured four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over Tampa Bay the previous week.
“When they hit our quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It is not a safe way to compete and it’s not a smart way to keep our field general healthy for the rest of the season. We’ve got to play better.”
Allen was slow to get up after a sack in the first half. He said he was OK and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so many times on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I encountered a few myself. I need to be better at disposing of the football. Too many times, I was going backwards.”
Allen lost 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to top the Houston defense. His second one came when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and Anderson rose and chased him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt early in the third.
The Bills played for a second straight game absent wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier benched for the first series of a defeat to New England in Week 5 after additionally being late for a meeting.
No change. We are approaching it day by day,” McDermott said. “I felt he had a better week, but we are handling it step by step. It was not that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir led the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
Allen was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t execute in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we must execute, and we didn’t do a good job of that this evening,” he said. “Whatever situation and any circumstance, we’ve got to find a way, and we came up short.”
