Very little went right for Josh Allen in a disappointing contest on Thursday evening versus the Texans.
And still he came close to willing the Bills to a win before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a 23-19 loss.
The quarterback took back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's last drive, resulting in a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) gained significant yardage on a quick throw from Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a lateral to another teammate.
Following a pre-snap infraction created a fourth down situation for the Bills, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s throw at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.
“We had a chance to win it there at the end,” Allen said. “We did a solid job of hanging tough and our defense bailed us out a couple of times. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved tough for Allen to establish rhythm on a night he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and pressured four other times. Allen passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.
Whenever they hit our QB a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It is not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a smart way to preserve our field general healthy for the remaining games. We need to play better.”
Josh Allen was slow to get up after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was OK and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being contacted so many times on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I encountered a few myself. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I found myself losing ground.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to top the Texans. Another sack came when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson rose and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss 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 late to a squad gathering before their last game. He was earlier benched for the first series of a loss to the Patriots in the fifth week after additionally being delayed for a team session.
No change. We are approaching it day by day,” the coach noted. “I thought he had a better week, but we’re handling it step by step. It was not that it was ignored, but we went with the players that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir led the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 yards and a score.
Allen was frustrated that the team were unable to execute down the stretch.
In the end, we’ve got execute, and we didn’t do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “No matter the scenario and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
