Very little clicked for Josh Allen in a frustrating game Thursday night against the Houston Texans.
And still he nearly managed to willing the Bills to a victory before an interception in the final minute sealed their fate in a close defeat.
The quarterback took consecutive sacks on the Bills’ last drive, leading to a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a quick throw from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
Following a pre-snap infraction created a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds remaining.
We possessed a chance to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen said. “We did a solid job of staying in it and our defense saved us a few instances. We must find a way, and we didn’t.”
Proved difficult for Allen to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a personal-worst eight times and hit four additional instances. Allen threw for 253 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.
Whenever they pressure our quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It is not a safe way to compete and it’s not a smart way to preserve our field general in good shape for the rest of the season. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was slow to get up after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He said he was OK and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being hit so frequently on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I ran into a couple myself. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I found myself losing ground.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to lead the Houston defense. Another sack came when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson got up and chased him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt early in the third.
The Bills competed for a second consecutive matchup absent wideout Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was late to a squad gathering before their last game. He was previously benched for the first series of a defeat to the Patriots in the fifth week after additionally being late for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We’re just taking it one day at a time,” McDermott noted. “I thought 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 provide the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
The quarterback was frustrated that the team were unable to make plays down the stretch.
In the end, we’ve got execute, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he concluded. “No matter the scenario and any circumstance, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
