Very little went right for Josh Allen in a disappointing game on Thursday evening against the Houston 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 23-19 defeat.
The quarterback endured back-to-back sacks on the team's final possession, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (with seven wins) gained significant yardage on a quick throw from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.
After a pre-snap infraction created a fourth down situation for the Bills, a Texans defender intercepted 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,” Allen said. “Our team performed a solid job of hanging tough and our defensive unit saved us a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”
Proved tough for the signal-caller to get anything going on a night he was brought down a career-high eight times and hit four additional instances. Allen passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after accounting for six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.
Whenever they hit our QB 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach Sean McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It’s just not a safe way to play and it isn't a smart way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We need to improve our performance.”
Allen was slow to rise after a sack in the first half. He indicated he was fine and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being hit so many times during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a few personally. I’ve got to be more effective at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had two and a half sacks to top the Texans. His second one came when he almost sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and the defender got up and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt early in the third.
Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup absent receiver Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was late to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was previously benched for the opening drive of a loss to New England in Week 5 after additionally being late for a team session.
No change. We are approaching it one day at a time,” the coach noted. “I felt he had a better week, but we’re handling it step by step. It was not that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was disappointed that the Bills were unable to execute down the stretch.
In the end, we’ve got execute, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he concluded. “No matter the scenario and whatever condition, we’ve got to find a way, and we came up short.”
