Very little clicked for Josh Allen in a tough contest on Thursday evening versus the Houston Texans.
Yet he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an interception in the final minute ended their hopes in a close loss.
The quarterback took back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's last drive, resulting in a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) gained significant yardage on a short pass from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to another teammate.
Following a false-start penalty led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, a Texans defender picked off Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds remaining.
“We had a chance to win it there at the end,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a solid job of hanging tough and our defense saved us a few instances. We must figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was tough for the signal-caller to get anything going on a night he was sacked a career-high on eight occasions and hit four other times. Allen passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six touchdowns in a win over Tampa Bay last week.
Whenever they hit our QB a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It is not a healthy way to play and it’s not a good way to preserve our field general in good shape for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Allen was slow to rise after a tackle in the first half. He indicated he was OK and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being hit so many times on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I ran into a few personally. I’ve got to be better at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I was losing ground.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had two and a half sacks to top the Houston defense. His second one came when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and Anderson rose and chased him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt early in the third.
The Bills played for a second straight game absent receiver Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their last game. He was earlier held out for the opening drive of a defeat to New England in the fifth week after also being late for a team session.
“Nothing new. We’re just taking it one day at a time,” the coach noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are taking it one day at a time. It was not that it was ignored, but we opted for the players that give us the best chance.”
Shakir led the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was disappointed that the team were unable to execute down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he said. “No matter the situation and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to find a way, and we didn’t.”
