Little went well for Josh Allen in a tough game Thursday night versus the Houston Texans.
And still he came close to willing the Bills to a victory before an interception in the final minute sealed their fate in a 23-19 loss.
The quarterback endured back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's final possession, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) gained significant yardage on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
After a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute remaining.
We possessed a chance to win it there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out a couple of times. We must figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was tough for the signal-caller to get anything going on a night he was brought down a personal-worst on eight occasions and pressured four other times. Allen threw for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after producing six TDs in a win over Tampa Bay last week.
Whenever they pressure our QB a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach Sean McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It’s just not a safe way to play and it’s not a good way to keep our field general in good shape for the remaining games. We’ve got to play better.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to rise after a sack in the first half. He said he was fine and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being contacted so many times during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I ran into a few myself. I’ve got to be better at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I was going backwards.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to top the Texans. Another sack came when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson got up and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt early in the third.
The Bills competed for a second straight game absent receiver Keon Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was previously benched for the first series of a defeat to New England in Week 5 after additionally being late for a team session.
No change. We are taking it day by day,” the coach said. “I thought he had a better week, but we’re handling it one day at a time. It was not that it was ignored, but we opted for the guys that provide the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir led the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a score.
The quarterback was disappointed that the team were unable to execute in crucial moments.
In the end, we must execute, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and whatever condition, we’ve got to find a way, and we came up short.”
