Little went well for Josh Allen in a frustrating contest on Thursday evening against the Texans.
And still he nearly managed to driving the Bills to a win before an interception in the last moments ended their hopes in a close defeat.
The quarterback endured consecutive sacks on the team's final possession, leading to a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up significant yardage on a quick throw from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a lateral to another teammate.
Following a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for Buffalo, a Texans defender picked off Allen’s pass at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds left.
“We had a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of hanging tough and our defense saved us a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved tough for Allen to get anything going on a night he was sacked a personal-worst eight times and hit four additional instances. Allen passed for 253 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after producing six touchdowns in a win over Tampa Bay last week.
“When they hit our quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a good way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. 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 “lost some feeling” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so many times during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I encountered a couple myself. I need to be more effective at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself going backwards.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Texans. His second one occurred when he almost sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and the defender rose and pursued him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt early in the third.
The Bills competed for a second straight game absent receiver Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was earlier benched for the first series of a loss to New England in Week 5 after also being delayed for a team session.
No change. We’re just taking it day by day,” 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 wasn’t thought about, but we went with the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir led the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
Allen was frustrated that the team were unable to make plays in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “No matter the scenario and whatever condition, we’ve got to find a way, and we didn’t.”
