Very little went well for Josh Allen in a disappointing contest on Thursday evening versus the Houston Texans.
And still he came close to driving the Buffalo Bills to a win before an interception in the final minute sealed their fate in a close defeat.
Allen endured consecutive 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 Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to another teammate.
Following a pre-snap infraction created a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted the quarterback's throw at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.
“We had a opportunity to win it there at the end,” Allen said. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defensive unit saved us a few instances. We’ve got find a way, and we didn’t.”
Proved tough for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a night he was sacked a career-high eight times and pressured four additional instances. Allen threw for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay last week.
Whenever they hit our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It is not a healthy way to compete and it isn't a good way to preserve our field general healthy for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”
Josh Allen was slow to rise after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so frequently during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a couple personally. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I was going backwards.”
Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Texans. His second one came when he nearly sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and the defender rose and pursued him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt early in the third.
Buffalo played for a second consecutive matchup absent wideout Keon Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier held out for the first series of a defeat to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being delayed for a team session.
No change. We are approaching it day by day,” McDermott said. “I thought he had a better week, but we are taking it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we opted for the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
The quarterback was frustrated that the team were unable to execute in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we must perform, and we didn’t do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever situation and any circumstance, we’ve got to find a way, and we came up short.”
