Very little clicked for Josh Allen in a tough contest Thursday night versus the Texans.
And still he came close to willing the Bills to a win before an interception in the last moments sealed their fate in a close loss.
The quarterback endured consecutive tackles for loss on the Bills’ final possession, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who flipped a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
Following a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for the Bills, a Texans defender intercepted Allen’s pass at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds left.
“We had a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen said. “Our team performed a solid job of hanging tough and our defense bailed us out a couple of times. We must find a way, and we didn’t.”
Proved tough for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a night he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and pressured four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six touchdowns in a victory over Tampa Bay last week.
“When they hit our QB 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott commented. “I don’t like that stat at all. It is not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a smart way to preserve our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We need to play better.”
Josh Allen was slow to get up after a sack in the first half. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being contacted so many times on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I ran into a couple personally. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I was losing ground.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 sacks to top the Houston defense. Another sack came when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson got up and pursued him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup without receiver Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was previously benched for the first series of a loss to New England in Week 5 after also being late for a team session.
“Nothing new. We’re just taking it day by day,” the coach said. “I felt he had a better week, but we’re handling it step by step. It was not that it was ignored, but we opted for the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir led the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
Allen was frustrated that the Bills were unable to make plays down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we must execute, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he concluded. “Whatever situation and any condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
