Very little went right for Josh Allen in a tough contest on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.
And still he nearly managed to driving the Bills to a victory before an late pick in the final minute ended their hopes in a 23-19 loss.
The quarterback took back-to-back sacks on the team's last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who flipped a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
Following a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for the Bills, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute remaining.
We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen stated. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defense saved us a few instances. We must find a way, and we didn’t.”
Proved difficult for Allen to get anything going on a night he was sacked a career-high eight times and hit four other times. Allen threw for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after producing six TDs in a win over Tampa Bay last week.
Whenever they pressure our quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It is not a safe way to compete and it isn't a good way to preserve our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to get up after a sack in the first half. He indicated he was OK and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being contacted so many times during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple myself. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I was going backwards.”
Allen lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half sacks to top the Houston defense. Another sack came when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and the defender rose and chased him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt early in the third.
Buffalo played for a second consecutive matchup absent wideout Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their last game. He was previously benched for the first series of a defeat to the Patriots in the fifth week after additionally being late for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We are approaching it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a better week, but we’re handling it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a score.
The quarterback was frustrated that the team couldn’t execute in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the scenario and any condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
