Little went well for Josh Allen in a tough contest on Thursday evening versus the Houston Texans.
And still he came close to willing the Bills to a win before an late pick in the final minute ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.
The quarterback endured consecutive tackles for loss on the Bills’ last drive, resulting in a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) gained 44 yards on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds remaining.
“We had a chance to come out on top there at the end,” Allen said. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defensive unit saved us a few instances. We must figure it out, and we didn’t.”
It was tough for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a night he was brought down a personal-worst on eight occasions and pressured four other times. The QB 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, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach Sean McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It’s just not a safe way to compete and it’s not a good way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We need to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to rise after a sack in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was OK and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so frequently on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I ran into a couple myself. I’ve got to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I was going backwards.”
Allen lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Houston defense. His second one occurred when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and Anderson got up and pursued him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt early in the third.
Buffalo played for a second straight game absent receiver Keon Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a squad gathering before their last game. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a loss to New England in the fifth week after also being late for a team session.
“Nothing new. We are approaching it day by day,” the coach noted. “I thought he had a improved week, but we’re taking it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was disappointed that the Bills were unable to execute in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we must execute, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he said. “Whatever situation and whatever condition, we’ve got to find a way, and we came up short.”
