Little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a tough game Thursday night versus the Houston Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to driving the Buffalo Bills to a win before an late pick in the final minute sealed their fate in a 23-19 loss.
The quarterback took consecutive tackles for loss on the Bills’ last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a quick throw from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate.
After a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for Buffalo, a Texans defender intercepted Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds remaining.
“We had a opportunity to come out on top there at the conclusion,” 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 evening he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and pressured four other times. Allen 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 quarterback 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It is not a healthy way to compete and it isn't a smart way to keep our field general healthy for the rest of the season. We need to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to rise after a tackle in the first half. He said he was OK and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so many times on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a few myself. I’ve got to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I was losing ground.”
Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to lead the Houston defense. Another sack came when he almost sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and the defender rose and chased him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo played for a second straight game without wideout Keon Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was earlier benched for the opening drive of a loss to New England in Week 5 after also being late for a meeting.
No change. We are approaching it one day at a time,” McDermott said. “I thought he had a improved week, but we are taking it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the guys that give us the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was frustrated that the team were unable to execute down the stretch.
In the end, we’ve got perform, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “No matter the situation and any condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
