Very little went well for Josh Allen in a tough contest Thursday night versus the Texans.
And still he nearly managed to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an interception in the last moments sealed their fate in a 23-19 loss.
The quarterback took back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (with seven wins) picked up significant yardage on a quick throw from Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
After a pre-snap infraction created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, a Texans defender intercepted the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds left.
“We had a chance to come out on top there at the end,” Josh Allen stated. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defensive unit bailed us out a few instances. We must figure it out, and we didn’t.”
Proved difficult for the signal-caller to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a career-high eight times and hit four other times. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six TDs in a win over Tampa Bay the previous week.
Whenever they hit our quarterback 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott commented. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It’s just not a safe 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 get up after a sack 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 contacted so frequently on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I ran into a couple myself. I’ve got to be more effective at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I was going backwards.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half tackles for loss to top the Houston defense. His second one came when he nearly sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and the defender rose and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt early in the third.
Buffalo played for a second straight game without 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 New England in the fifth week after also being delayed for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We are approaching it day by day,” the coach said. “I felt 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 guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir led the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
Allen was frustrated that the team couldn’t execute down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we must execute, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “No matter the situation and whatever condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
