Very little went right for Josh Allen in a disappointing game on Thursday evening against the Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to driving the Bills to a victory before an interception in the final minute sealed their fate in a 23-19 loss.
Allen endured consecutive tackles for loss on the team's final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
After a pre-snap infraction created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's pass at the 9-yard line with under half a minute remaining.
We possessed a chance to win it there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “Our team performed a solid job of hanging tough and our defensive unit bailed us out a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”
It was difficult for Allen to establish rhythm on a night he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay last week.
“When they hit our QB a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott commented. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It is not a healthy way to compete and it isn't a good way to preserve our field general in good shape for the remaining games. We need to play better.”
Josh Allen was slow to get up after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was OK and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being contacted so many times on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a couple personally. I need to be more effective at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”
Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to lead the Texans. His second one occurred when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and Anderson got up and pursued him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt early in the third.
Buffalo played for a second consecutive matchup absent wideout Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was previously held out 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 one day at a time,” the coach said. “I thought he had a improved week, but we’re handling it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the guys that give us the best chance.”
Shakir topped the Bills with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was disappointed that the Bills were unable to execute in crucial moments.
In the end, we’ve got perform, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the scenario and any circumstance, we’ve got to find a way, and we didn’t.”
