Little went right for Josh Allen in a disappointing game Thursday night against the Texans.
And still he nearly managed to driving the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an late pick in the final minute sealed their fate in a close loss.
Allen endured back-to-back tackles for loss on the Bills’ last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, a Texans defender intercepted the quarterback's throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.
“We had a opportunity to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defense saved us a couple of times. We must find a way, and we didn’t.”
Proved difficult for Allen to establish rhythm on a night he was sacked a personal-worst eight times and pressured four additional instances. Allen threw for 253 yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six TDs in a win over Tampa Bay last week.
“When they hit our quarterback 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It’s just not a safe way to compete and it isn't a good way to keep our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Allen was sluggish to get up after a tackle in the first half. He said he was OK and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so frequently during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I ran into a couple myself. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I found myself going backwards.”
Allen lost 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half tackles for loss to top the Houston defense. Another sack occurred when he almost sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson got up and chased him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills played for a second straight game without receiver Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier held out for the first series of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being late for a team session.
“Nothing new. We’re just taking it one day at a time,” the coach noted. “I thought he had a better week, but we’re handling it one day at a time. It was not that it was ignored, but we went with the players that provide the best chance.”
Shakir led the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
Allen was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t execute in crucial moments.
In the end, we must execute, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the situation and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”