Very little went well for Josh Allen in a frustrating game on Thursday evening versus the Texans.
And still he came close to driving the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an interception in the final minute ended their hopes in a close defeat.
The quarterback took back-to-back tackles for loss on the Bills’ last drive, leading to a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a quick throw from Allen to a receiver, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate.
After a false-start penalty created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, a Texans defender intercepted the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds left.
We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the end,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a good job of staying in it and our defensive unit saved us a couple of times. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was tough for Allen to establish rhythm on a night he was brought down a career-high eight times and pressured four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after producing six TDs in a victory over the Buccaneers the previous week.
Whenever they pressure our QB a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It is not a safe way to compete and it isn't a good way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”
Josh Allen was slow to rise after a sack in the first half. He said he was OK and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so many times on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I ran into a couple personally. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 sacks to top the Houston defense. Another sack came when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and the defender rose and pursued him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo played for a second consecutive matchup without receiver 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 opening drive of a loss to New England in the fifth week after also being late for a team session.
No change. We’re just approaching it one day at a time,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we’re taking it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we opted for the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t make plays down the stretch.
In the end, we’ve got execute, and we didn’t do a good job of that tonight,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and any condition, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
