Very little went right for Josh Allen in a frustrating contest Thursday night versus the Houston Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to driving the Bills to a win before an late pick in the last moments sealed their fate in a 23-19 loss.
The quarterback endured back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
After a pre-snap infraction created a fourth down situation for Buffalo, a Texans defender picked off Allen’s throw at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.
We possessed a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen stated. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defensive unit saved us a few instances. We’ve got find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was difficult for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a night he was brought down a personal-worst eight times and pressured four other times. The QB passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay last week.
Whenever they pressure our QB 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It is not a safe way to compete and it’s not a good way to preserve our field general healthy for the rest of the season. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Allen was slow to get up after a sack in the first half. He indicated he was OK and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being contacted so frequently on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple personally. I’ve got to be more effective at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I was going backwards.”
Allen surrendered 70 yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 tackles for loss to top the Houston defense. His second one came when he almost sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and Anderson got up and pursued him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt early in the third.
The Bills competed for a second straight game absent wideout Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier held out for the opening drive of a loss to the Patriots in the fifth week after additionally being delayed for a meeting.
No change. We’re just taking it one day at a time,” McDermott said. “I thought he had a improved week, but we are handling it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we opted for the guys that provide the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was disappointed that the team couldn’t execute in crucial moments.
In the end, we’ve got perform, and we failed to do a good job of that this evening,” he said. “Whatever scenario and whatever condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
