Very little went well for Josh Allen in a frustrating contest on Thursday evening against the Texans.
And still he nearly managed to driving the Bills to a victory before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a close defeat.
Allen endured consecutive tackles for loss on the Bills’ last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who flipped a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
After a false-start penalty created a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds left.
“We had a chance to come out on top there at the end,” Allen said. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defensive unit bailed us out a few instances. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved difficult for Allen to establish rhythm on a night he was brought down a career-high on eight occasions and pressured four other times. Allen passed for 253 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over the Buccaneers last week.
Whenever they hit our QB a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head 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 slow to rise after a tackle in the first half. He said he was fine and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being contacted so frequently during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I encountered a couple personally. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself going backwards.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half sacks to lead the Texans. His second one occurred when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson got up and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo competed for a second straight game without wideout Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their last game. He was previously held out for the first series of a defeat to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being delayed for a meeting.
No change. We are taking it day by day,” the coach noted. “I thought he had a better week, but we’re handling it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we opted for the players that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir led the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
The quarterback was disappointed that the team couldn’t execute in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we didn’t do a good job of that this evening,” he said. “Whatever scenario and whatever condition, we need to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
