Little went right for Josh Allen in a disappointing contest Thursday night against the Texans.
And still he nearly managed to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an interception in the last moments ended their hopes in a 23-19 loss.
The quarterback endured back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ final possession, leading to a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate.
After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's throw at the 9-yard line with under half a minute left.
“We had a chance to come out on top there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out a couple of times. We must figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was difficult for Allen to establish rhythm on a night he was brought down a career-high on eight occasions and pressured four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six TDs in a victory over the Buccaneers last week.
Whenever they hit our quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it isn't a smart way to preserve our field general healthy for the rest of the season. We need to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was slow to get up after a sack in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was OK and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so many times during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple personally. I need to be better at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I found myself going backwards.”
Allen lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to lead the Houston defense. Another sack came when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and Anderson got up and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup without receiver Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was previously benched for the first series of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being delayed for a team session.
No change. We’re just taking it day by day,” the coach said. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are taking it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Bills with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
Allen was disappointed that the team were unable to make plays in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he said. “Whatever scenario and whatever circumstance, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
