Little went right for Josh Allen in a tough game on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.
And still he came close to driving the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.
The quarterback endured consecutive sacks on the team's last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.
Following a false-start penalty led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with under half a minute remaining.
“We had a opportunity to win it there at the end,” Josh Allen stated. “We did a solid job of hanging tough and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We must figure it out, and we didn’t.”
Proved tough for Allen to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a career-high on eight occasions and hit four additional instances. The QB threw for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six TDs in a victory over the Buccaneers last week.
“When they pressure our QB 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head 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 good way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We’ve got to play better.”
Allen was slow to get up after a sack in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was OK and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being hit so many times during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple myself. I’ve got to be more effective at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Texans. His second one came when he nearly took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and the defender rose and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt early in the third.
The Bills played for a second consecutive matchup absent receiver Keon Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was previously held out for the first series of a loss to the Patriots in the fifth week after additionally being delayed for a meeting.
No change. We are taking it one day at a time,” McDermott noted. “I thought he had a better week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that provide the best chance.”
Shakir led the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 yards and Cook had 116 yards and a score.
Allen was disappointed that the Bills couldn’t execute down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we must execute, and we failed to succeed of that tonight,” he concluded. “Whatever situation and whatever condition, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
