Very little clicked for Josh Allen in a tough contest on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an late pick in the final minute ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.
The quarterback took back-to-back tackles for loss on the Bills’ final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.
Following a pre-snap infraction created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted the quarterback's throw at the 9-yard line with under half a minute remaining.
We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen said. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defense saved us a few instances. We’ve got find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved difficult for Allen to get anything going on a night he was sacked a career-high eight times and pressured four other times. Allen passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six touchdowns in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.
Whenever they hit our quarterback 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach Sean McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It is not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a good way to preserve our field general healthy for the rest of the season. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Allen was sluggish to rise after a tackle in the opening two quarters. 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 remarked. “I ran into a couple myself. I’ve got to be better at disposing of the football. Too many times, I was losing ground.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half tackles for loss to top the Houston defense. His second one occurred when he nearly sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and the defender got up and chased him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills competed for a second straight game without wideout Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a squad gathering before their last game. He was earlier held out for the first series of a loss to New England in Week 5 after additionally being late for a team session.
No change. We’re just taking it one day at a time,” the coach noted. “I thought he had a better week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 yards and Cook had 116 yards and a score.
Allen was disappointed that the team couldn’t make plays in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the situation and whatever condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
