Little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a tough contest Thursday night versus the Houston Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to willing the Bills to a win before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.
Allen took back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ final possession, resulting in a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) gained 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate.
After a pre-snap infraction created a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, Calen Bullock picked off Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds remaining.
We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “We did a solid job of hanging tough and our defensive unit saved us a couple of times. We must figure it out, and we didn’t.”
Proved tough for Allen to establish rhythm on a night he was sacked a personal-worst eight times and hit four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and zero scores after accounting for six TDs in a win over Tampa Bay last week.
Whenever they hit our quarterback a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It’s just not a safe way to play and it isn't a smart way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We need 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 shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so frequently during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I encountered a couple myself. I’ve got to be more effective at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I was losing ground.”
Allen lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Texans. Another sack occurred when he nearly sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and Anderson got up and chased him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo played for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their last game. He was previously held out for the first series of a defeat to New England in Week 5 after additionally being late for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We’re just taking it day by day,” the coach noted. “I thought he had a better week, but we are taking it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we opted for the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was disappointed that the team couldn’t execute down the stretch.
In the end, we’ve got perform, and we failed to do a good job 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.”
