Very little went right for Josh Allen in a tough contest on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.
And still he came close to driving the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an interception in the final minute sealed their fate in a close defeat.
The quarterback endured consecutive sacks on the team's last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) gained 44 yards on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate.
Following a false-start penalty led to a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds left.
We possessed a opportunity to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen said. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defensive unit saved us a couple of times. We must figure it out, and we didn’t.”
Proved tough for the signal-caller to get anything going on a evening he was brought down a career-high on eight occasions and pressured four other times. Allen passed for 253 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six touchdowns in a victory over the Buccaneers the previous week.
Whenever they hit our quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It’s just not a healthy way to play and it isn't a good way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to get up after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being contacted so many times on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I encountered a couple myself. I’ve got to be better at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I found myself going backwards.”
Allen lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to lead the Houston defense. His second one occurred when he almost sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and Anderson got up and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt early in the third.
The Bills played for a second straight game without receiver Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier held out for the opening drive of a defeat to the Patriots in Week 5 after also being delayed for a meeting.
No change. We’re just approaching it day by day,” the coach said. “I thought he had a better week, but we’re handling it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir led the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was disappointed that the team were unable to make plays down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we must perform, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he said. “Whatever scenario and any circumstance, we’ve got to find a way, and we came up short.”
