Very little clicked for Josh Allen in a tough game Thursday night against the Houston Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to driving the Bills to a win before an late pick in the final minute ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.
Allen took back-to-back tackles for loss on the Bills’ last drive, resulting in a long fourth down, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
Following a pre-snap infraction created a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, Calen Bullock picked off Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.
“We had a opportunity to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defensive unit bailed us out a few instances. We must figure it out, and we didn’t.”
It was tough for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst eight times and hit four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for six touchdowns in a victory over Tampa Bay last week.
Whenever they pressure our QB 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott commented. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It’s just not a safe way to compete and it’s not a smart way to keep our field general healthy for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was slow to get up after a tackle in the first half. He indicated he was OK and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being hit so frequently during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I ran into a few personally. I need to be better at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I was losing ground.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to lead the Houston defense. Another sack came when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and the defender rose and pursued him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup absent wideout Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was earlier held out for the opening drive of a loss to New England in the fifth week after also being late for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We are approaching 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 was not that it was ignored, but we opted for the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
Allen was disappointed that the Bills were unable to make plays in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we’ve got perform, and we didn’t do a good job of that this evening,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and whatever condition, we’ve got to find a way, and we didn’t.”
