Little went right for Josh Allen in a frustrating contest on Thursday evening versus the Houston Texans.
And still he nearly managed to willing the Bills to a win before an late pick in the last moments sealed their fate in a close loss.
Allen took consecutive sacks on the Bills’ last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
Following a false-start penalty created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, a Texans defender intercepted Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.
We possessed a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen stated. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defensive unit bailed us out a few instances. We must find a way, and we didn’t.”
Proved difficult for Allen to get anything going on a night he was sacked a career-high on eight occasions and pressured four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after accounting for six TDs in a win over Tampa Bay the previous week.
“When they hit our QB 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It is not a safe way to play and it’s not a good way to keep our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to get up after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was OK and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so many times on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I ran into a few myself. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I found myself going backwards.”
Allen lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Texans. His second one came when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson got up and pursued him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt early in the third.
The Bills competed for a second consecutive matchup without receiver Keon Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier held out for the first series of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being delayed for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We are approaching it day by day,” McDermott said. “I felt he had a improved week, but we’re taking it step by step. It was not that it was ignored, but we went with the players that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir led the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a score.
Allen was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t execute in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we’ve got perform, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and any circumstance, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
