Very little went well for Josh Allen in a disappointing contest on Thursday evening against the Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to willing the Bills to a win before an interception in the last moments sealed their fate in a close loss.
Allen endured consecutive tackles for loss on the team's last drive, resulting in a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
Following a pre-snap infraction created a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.
We possessed a chance to come out on top there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defense saved us a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”
Proved tough for the signal-caller to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a career-high eight times and hit four additional instances. The QB threw for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for six touchdowns in a victory over the Buccaneers the previous week.
Whenever they pressure our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott commented. “I don’t like that stat at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it isn't 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 opening two quarters. He indicated he was fine and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so frequently on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a couple myself. I need to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I was going backwards.”
Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Houston defense. His second one occurred when he nearly sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and Anderson rose and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt early in the third.
Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Keon Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was previously held out for the first series of a loss to the Patriots in the fifth week after also being late for a meeting.
“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 wasn’t thought about, but we went with the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir led the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was disappointed that the team couldn’t make plays in crucial moments.
In the end, we’ve got execute, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he concluded. “No matter the situation and whatever condition, we’ve got to find a way, and we didn’t.”
