Very little went right for Josh Allen in a disappointing game on Thursday evening versus the Texans.
Yet he came close to driving the Bills to a win before an interception in the final minute ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.
The quarterback took consecutive sacks on the team's last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
After a false-start penalty led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute remaining.
We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defense saved us a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was difficult for Allen to get anything going on a night he was brought down a career-high eight times and hit four other times. Allen threw for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and zero scores after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over the Buccaneers last week.
Whenever they hit our quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It’s just not a safe way to compete and it isn't a good way to keep our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to get up after a sack in the first half. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being contacted so many times during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I ran into a few personally. I’ve got to be more effective at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I found myself going backwards.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half tackles for loss to top the Texans. Another sack occurred when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and Anderson got up and chased him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt early in the third.
The Bills played for a second consecutive matchup without receiver Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being delayed for a team session.
“Nothing new. We’re just taking it day by day,” McDermott said. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are taking it step by step. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the players that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 yards and a score.
Allen was disappointed that the Bills were unable to make plays in crucial moments.
In the end, we must perform, and we failed to succeed of that tonight,” he said. “No matter the situation and any circumstance, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”
