Little went right for Josh Allen in a disappointing contest Thursday night versus the Houston Texans.
Yet he came close to driving the Buffalo Bills to a win before an late pick in the final minute ended their hopes in a 23-19 loss.
Allen endured back-to-back sacks on the team's last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) gained significant yardage on a quick throw from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.
After a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds remaining.
We possessed a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a solid job of hanging tough and our defensive unit bailed us out a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”
It was difficult for Allen to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a career-high on eight occasions and pressured four additional instances. Allen threw for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after producing six touchdowns in a victory over the Buccaneers last week.
“When they hit our QB a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach Sean McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It is not a safe way to play and it’s not a smart way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Allen was sluggish to get up after a sack in the first half. He indicated he was OK and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being contacted so many times on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a few personally. I’ve got to be better at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I found myself going backwards.”
Allen lost 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to lead the Texans. Another sack came when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson got up and chased him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills played for a second straight game absent receiver Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was earlier held out for the opening drive of a defeat to New England in Week 5 after also being delayed for a team session.
No change. We are approaching it one day at a time,” McDermott said. “I felt he had a better week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the players that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir led the Bills with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was frustrated that the team couldn’t make plays down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we must execute, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the scenario and whatever condition, we’ve got to find a way, and we came up short.”
