Little went right for Josh Allen in a frustrating game Thursday night against the Houston Texans.
And still he came close to willing the Bills to a win before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a 23-19 loss.
Allen endured consecutive tackles for loss on the Bills’ final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) gained significant yardage on a quick throw from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
After a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted the quarterback's throw at the 9-yard line with under half a minute remaining.
We possessed a chance 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 saved us a few instances. We must figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved difficult for Allen to get anything going on a night he was brought down a career-high on eight occasions and hit four other times. Allen threw for 253 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.
“When they hit our quarterback 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It is not a healthy way to play and it isn't a good way to preserve our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to rise after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was fine and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being contacted so many times on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple personally. I’ve got to be better at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself going backwards.”
Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 tackles for loss to top the Texans. His second one came when he almost took Allen down 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 consecutive matchup without receiver Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a squad gathering before their last game. He was previously benched for the first series of a loss to New England in Week 5 after also being delayed for a meeting.
No change. We are taking it day by day,” McDermott said. “I felt he had a improved week, but we’re handling it one day at a time. It was not that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
Allen was frustrated that the Bills were unable to make plays down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we must execute, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the scenario and any circumstance, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
