Very little clicked for Josh Allen in a frustrating game on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.
And still he nearly managed to willing the Buffalo Bills to a win before an interception in the last moments ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.
Allen endured back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's last drive, leading to a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
Following a false-start penalty created a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, a Texans defender intercepted the quarterback's throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute remaining.
“We had a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defense saved us a few instances. We must figure it out, and we didn’t.”
It was tough for Allen to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and pressured four additional instances. Allen threw for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after producing six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers last week.
Whenever they hit our QB a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott said. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It is not a healthy way to compete and it isn't a good way to preserve our quarterback healthy 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 said he was OK and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being contacted so frequently on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I encountered a few myself. I need to be better at disposing of the football. Too many times, I was going backwards.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 tackles for loss to top the Texans. Another sack came when he nearly took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and the defender got up and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their last game. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a defeat to the Patriots in Week 5 after also being delayed for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We are taking it one day at a time,” the coach said. “I thought he had a better week, but we’re handling it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we opted for the players that give us the best chance.”
Shakir topped the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
Allen was frustrated that the Bills were unable to make plays down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we must execute, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he said. “Whatever situation and any condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
