Very little went well for Josh Allen in a disappointing contest Thursday night against the Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to driving the Buffalo Bills to a win before an interception in the final minute ended their hopes in a 23-19 loss.
Allen endured consecutive sacks on the team's last drive, resulting in a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who flipped a lateral to another teammate.
Following a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for the Bills, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute remaining.
We possessed a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “We did a solid job of hanging tough and our defensive unit bailed us out a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved difficult for Allen to establish rhythm on a night he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four additional instances. The QB threw for 253 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers 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 stat at all. It is not a safe way to compete and it isn't a smart way to keep our field general healthy for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”
Josh Allen was slow to rise after a sack in the first half. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being contacted so frequently during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I encountered a couple myself. I need to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I found myself losing ground.”
Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to lead the Houston defense. His second one occurred when he almost sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson got up and pursued him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt early in the third.
The Bills competed for a second straight game absent wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their last game. He was previously benched for the first series of a loss to New England in Week 5 after also being late for a meeting.
No change. We’re just taking it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I thought he had a improved week, but we’re taking it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that provide the best chance.”
Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was frustrated that the team were unable to execute in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we must execute, and we failed to do a good job of that this evening,” he concluded. “No matter the situation and any circumstance, we need to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
