Little went right for Josh Allen in a tough game Thursday night against the Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to driving the Bills to a win before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a close loss.
Allen took back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ final possession, 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 flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
After a pre-snap infraction created a fourth down situation for the Bills, a Texans defender intercepted Allen’s throw at the 9-yard line with under half a minute left.
We possessed a opportunity to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of hanging tough and our defense saved us a few instances. We’ve got find a way, and we didn’t.”
It was difficult for Allen to get anything going on a night he was brought down a personal-worst eight times and hit four additional instances. The QB threw for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after producing six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.
“When they hit our quarterback a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a smart way to keep our field general in good shape for the rest of the season. We need to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to get up 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 in an awkward manner. He was asked about being hit so many times on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a couple personally. I need to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I was losing ground.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half sacks to lead the Texans. Another sack occurred when he nearly took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and the defender rose and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills competed for a second straight game without wideout Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was previously held out for the first series of a defeat to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being late for a meeting.
No change. We’re just taking it one day at a time,” the coach noted. “I felt he had a better week, but we’re taking it step by step. It was not that it was ignored, but we went with the players that provide the best chance.”
Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
Allen was frustrated that the Bills were unable to execute down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we failed to do a good job of that this evening,” he said. “Whatever situation and whatever condition, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
