Little went well for Josh Allen in a tough game on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.
And still he nearly managed to willing the Bills to a win before an interception in the final minute ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.
The quarterback endured back-to-back sacks on the team's final possession, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.
Following a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.
We possessed a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Josh Allen stated. “We did a solid job of staying in it and our defensive unit saved us a couple of times. We must find a way, and we didn’t.”
It was difficult for Allen to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a career-high on eight occasions and hit four other times. Allen passed for 253 yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six TDs in a victory over the Buccaneers the previous week.
Whenever they hit our QB 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It’s just not a safe way to play 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 slow to get up after a sack in the first half. He indicated he was fine and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being hit so frequently during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I ran into a couple personally. 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 sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to top the Houston defense. His second one came when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and Anderson got up and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo played for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Keon Coleman after he was again 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 the Patriots in the fifth week after additionally being late for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We are taking it day by day,” McDermott said. “I thought he had a better week, but we’re handling it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
Allen was frustrated that the team couldn’t execute down the stretch.
In the end, we must perform, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he said. “Whatever scenario and any condition, we’ve got to find a way, and we came up short.”
