Very little went right for Josh Allen in a frustrating game Thursday night versus the Houston Texans.
Yet he came close to willing the Bills to a victory before an late pick in the last moments sealed their fate in a 23-19 loss.
The quarterback took consecutive sacks on the Bills’ final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate.
Following a false-start penalty led to a fourth down situation for the Bills, a Texans defender intercepted Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute remaining.
We possessed a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of staying in it and our defense saved us a couple of times. We’ve got find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved tough for Allen to establish rhythm on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst eight times and hit four other times. The QB threw for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.
“When they hit our quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach McDermott commented. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a smart way to preserve our field general in good shape for the remaining games. We’ve got to play better.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to rise after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He said he was fine and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being contacted so many times on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I encountered a few myself. I’ve got to be more effective at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I was going backwards.”
Allen lost 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 sacks to top the Houston defense. Another sack came when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and the defender rose and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo played for a second straight game without receiver Keon Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier held out for the opening drive of a defeat to New England in the fifth week after also being delayed for a team session.
“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it day by day,” the coach noted. “I felt he had a better week, but we’re taking it step by step. It was not that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was frustrated that the team couldn’t execute in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we must perform, and we didn’t do a good job of that tonight,” he concluded. “No matter the scenario and whatever condition, we need to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
