Very little went right for Josh Allen in a tough contest Thursday night against the Houston Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to willing the Bills to a win before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a 23-19 loss.
Allen took consecutive tackles for loss on the Bills’ final possession, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) picked up 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 led to a fourth down situation for the Bills, Calen Bullock picked off Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds remaining.
“We had a chance to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “We did a solid job of staying in it and our defensive unit saved us a few instances. We’ve got find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved tough for Allen to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a career-high eight times and pressured four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 yards with two interceptions and zero scores after accounting for six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.
Whenever they hit our quarterback 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott commented. “I don’t like that stat at all. It is not a safe way to play and it isn't a good way to keep our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We need 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 “lost some feeling” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so frequently during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I ran into a couple personally. I’ve got to be more effective at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I was losing ground.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to top the Houston defense. His second one occurred when he almost sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and the defender got up and chased him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo competed for a second straight game absent receiver Keon Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was earlier held out for the opening drive of a loss to New England in Week 5 after additionally being late for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it day by day,” the coach said. “I thought he had a better week, but we are taking it step by step. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the guys that provide the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
Allen was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t execute in crucial moments.
In the end, we must execute, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he said. “Whatever scenario and any condition, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
