Very little clicked for Josh Allen in a tough contest on Thursday evening versus the Texans.
Yet he came close to driving the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an interception in the last moments ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.
The quarterback endured back-to-back sacks on the team's last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who flipped a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
After a pre-snap infraction created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's throw at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds remaining.
“We had a chance to win it there at the end,” Josh Allen stated. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was tough for Allen to get anything going on a night he was brought down a career-high on eight occasions and hit four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a victory over the Buccaneers the previous week.
“When they pressure our QB a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott commented. “I don’t like that stat at all. It is not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a good way to keep our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was slow to rise after a tackle in the first half. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so frequently during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I encountered a few myself. I’ve got to be better at disposing of the football. Too many times, I was going backwards.”
Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had two and a half sacks to lead the Houston defense. His second one occurred when he nearly sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and Anderson rose and pursued him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo competed for a second straight game without receiver Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier benched for the first series of a defeat to New England in Week 5 after also being late for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it day by day,” the coach said. “I felt he had a better week, but we are taking it step by step. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for 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 score.
Allen was disappointed that the Bills were unable to make plays in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we must execute, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever situation and whatever condition, we’ve got to find a way, and we came up short.”
