Very little went right for Josh Allen in a tough game on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.
And still he came close to driving the Bills to a victory before an interception in the last moments sealed their fate in a 23-19 defeat.
Allen took consecutive tackles for loss on the Bills’ final possession, leading to a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
After a pre-snap infraction created a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, a Texans defender intercepted Allen’s pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.
We possessed a opportunity to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Allen said. “Our team performed a solid job of hanging tough and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got find a way, and we didn’t.”
Proved difficult for the signal-caller to get anything going on a night he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four other times. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after producing six touchdowns in a win over Tampa Bay last week.
“When they hit our QB a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It is not a safe way to compete and it’s not a smart way to preserve our field general healthy for the rest of the season. We’ve got to play better.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to get up after a tackle in the first half. He said 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 frequently on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I encountered a few myself. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I found myself going backwards.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to top the Houston defense. Another sack came when he almost sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson got up and chased him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was late to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was earlier benched for the opening drive of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after also being delayed for a meeting.
No change. We’re just taking it one day at a time,” the coach noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we’re handling it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the players that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 yards and Cook had 116 yards and a score.
The quarterback was frustrated that the team were unable to make plays down the stretch.
In the end, we must execute, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he concluded. “No matter the situation and any condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
