Very little went well for Josh Allen in a tough game Thursday night against the Texans.
And still he nearly managed to willing the Bills to a victory before an interception in the last moments sealed their fate in a 23-19 defeat.
The quarterback took consecutive tackles for loss on the Bills’ last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
After a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for Buffalo, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.
We possessed a chance to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out a couple of times. We’ve got find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved tough for the signal-caller to get anything going on a night he was brought down a career-high on eight occasions and hit four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six touchdowns in a win over Tampa Bay the previous week.
Whenever they pressure our QB a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach Sean McDermott commented. “I don’t like that stat at all. It’s just not a safe way to play and it isn't a good way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We’ve got to play better.”
Allen was slow to get up after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was OK and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being contacted so frequently on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I ran into a few personally. I’ve got 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 sacks to top the Houston defense. His second one came when he nearly sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and Anderson got up and chased him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo competed for a second straight game absent wideout Keon Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a squad gathering before their last game. He was earlier held out for the first series of a defeat to New England in Week 5 after also being late for a meeting.
No change. We’re just approaching it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I thought he had a better week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It was not that it was ignored, but we opted for the guys that give us the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a score.
Allen was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t execute in crucial moments.
In the end, we’ve got execute, and we didn’t do a good job of that tonight,” he concluded. “Whatever situation and any condition, we’ve got to find a way, and we didn’t.”
