Very little went right for Josh Allen in a disappointing game on Thursday evening versus the Houston Texans.
And still he came close to willing the Bills to a victory before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a close defeat.
The quarterback endured consecutive sacks on the team's last drive, resulting in a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.
Following a pre-snap infraction created a fourth down situation for the Bills, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s throw at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.
“We had a chance to come out on top there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “We did a solid job of hanging tough and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was tough for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four additional instances. The QB threw for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six touchdowns in a victory over the Buccaneers the previous week.
Whenever they pressure 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 safe way to play and it’s not a smart way to keep our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”
Allen was sluggish to rise after a tackle in the first half. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being contacted so many times during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I ran into a couple personally. I need to be more effective at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to lead the Texans. Another sack occurred when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson rose and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo competed for a second straight game absent receiver Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was earlier held out for the first series of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being late for a team session.
“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it day by day,” the coach noted. “I thought he had a improved week, but we are handling it step by step. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the guys that give us the best chance.”
Shakir led the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a score.
The quarterback was disappointed that the team were unable to make plays in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we must perform, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever scenario and whatever condition, we need to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
