Very little went well for Josh Allen in a tough game on Thursday evening versus the Houston Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to willing the Bills to a victory before an interception in the final minute sealed their fate in a 23-19 loss.
The quarterback endured consecutive sacks on the team's last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) gained significant yardage on a short pass from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
After a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s throw at the 9-yard line with under half a minute remaining.
We possessed a chance to come out on top there at the end,” Allen stated. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defensive unit bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got find a way, and we didn’t.”
Proved tough 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 passing yards with two interceptions and zero scores after accounting for six TDs in a win over Tampa Bay last week.
Whenever they hit our quarterback a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head 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 keep our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to get up after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was OK and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being contacted so many times during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I encountered a few myself. I’ve got to be more effective at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I was losing ground.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to top the Houston defense. His second one came when he nearly took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and Anderson got up and chased him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt early in the third.
The Bills competed for a second straight game 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 held out for the first series of a loss to New England in Week 5 after also being late for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We are approaching it one day at a time,” the coach said. “I felt he had a improved week, but we’re taking it one day at a time. It was not that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that give us the best chance.”
Shakir led the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 yards and Cook had 116 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 this evening,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and any circumstance, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”
