Very little went right for Josh Allen in a disappointing contest on Thursday evening versus the Houston 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.
Allen took back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's final possession, leading to a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (7-4) gained significant yardage on a short pass from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
After a false-start penalty led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted the quarterback's throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.
We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “We did a solid 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 Allen to establish rhythm on a night he was brought down a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four additional instances. Allen threw for 253 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over Tampa Bay last week.
Whenever they hit our quarterback 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It’s just not a safe way to play and it’s not a good way to preserve our field general healthy for the rest of the season. We need to improve our performance.”
Allen was slow to rise after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was OK and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being contacted so frequently on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple myself. I need to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I found myself losing ground.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to top the Texans. Another sack came when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson rose and chased him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup absent wideout Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was earlier benched for the first series of a loss to the Patriots in the fifth week after additionally being delayed for a team session.
“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I thought he had a improved week, but we are handling it step by step. It was not that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir topped the Bills with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
Allen was disappointed that the Bills were unable to make plays down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever situation and any condition, we’ve got to find a way, and we came up short.”
