Little went well for Josh Allen in a frustrating game on Thursday evening versus the Houston Texans.
And still he nearly managed to willing the Buffalo Bills to a win before an interception in the final minute sealed their fate in a close defeat.
The quarterback endured consecutive tackles for loss on the team's last drive, resulting in a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
After a pre-snap infraction created a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's pass at the 9-yard line with under half a minute left.
We possessed a opportunity to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen stated. “We did a solid job of hanging tough and our defense saved us a few instances. We must figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved difficult for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a night he was sacked a career-high eight times and pressured four other times. Allen passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and zero scores after accounting for six touchdowns in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.
“When they hit our quarterback a dozen 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 play and it isn't a smart way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We’ve got to play better.”
Allen was slow to rise after a sack in the first half. He said he was OK and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being hit so many times on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I encountered a few personally. I need to be more effective at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I was going backwards.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to top the Texans. Another sack came when he nearly took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and Anderson rose and chased him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt early in the third.
The Bills competed for a second straight game without wideout Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was previously held out for the first series of a defeat to New England in Week 5 after also being late for a team session.
“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we’re handling it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the players that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
Allen was frustrated that the team couldn’t execute in crucial moments.
In the end, we’ve got perform, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he said. “Whatever situation and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
