Little went right for Josh Allen in a disappointing contest Thursday night against the Houston Texans.
And still he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a win before an late pick in the final minute ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.
Allen took consecutive sacks on the Bills’ last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
Following a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth down situation for the Bills, a Texans defender intercepted Allen’s pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.
We possessed a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out a couple of times. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was difficult for the signal-caller to get anything going on a night he was sacked a career-high eight times and hit four additional instances. Allen threw for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after producing six touchdowns in a victory over Tampa Bay last week.
Whenever they hit our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach Sean McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It is not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a smart way to preserve our field general in good shape for the rest of the season. We need to improve our performance.”
Allen was sluggish to rise after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was OK and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being hit so frequently during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I encountered a few myself. I need to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I found myself going backwards.”
Allen lost 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson 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 rose and pursued him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt early in the third.
Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup absent wideout Coleman after he was again 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 defeat to the Patriots in the fifth week after additionally being delayed for a team session.
“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it one day at a time,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we’re taking it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 yards and Cook had 116 yards and a score.
Allen was frustrated that the team couldn’t make plays in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we must perform, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “No matter the scenario and whatever circumstance, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”
