Very little went well for Josh Allen in a disappointing game on Thursday evening versus the Houston Texans.
And still he came close to driving the Bills to a win before an late pick in the final minute ended their hopes in a close defeat.
The quarterback endured consecutive tackles for loss on the Bills’ last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a lateral to another teammate.
After a false-start penalty led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, a Texans defender intercepted the quarterback's throw at the 9-yard line with under half a minute left.
“We had a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out a couple of times. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved tough for the signal-caller to get anything going on a night he was sacked a career-high on eight occasions and pressured four other times. The QB threw for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six TDs in a victory over the Buccaneers last week.
Whenever they pressure our QB a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach Sean McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It is not a healthy way to play and it’s not a good way to preserve our field general healthy for the remaining games. We need to play better.”
Josh Allen was slow to rise after a tackle in the first half. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so many times during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple myself. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself going backwards.”
Allen lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 sacks to lead the Texans. His second one occurred when he almost sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and the defender got up and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt early in the third.
Buffalo played for a second straight game absent wideout Keon Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a team meeting before their last game. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a defeat to New England in Week 5 after also being delayed for a meeting.
No change. We are approaching it day by day,” the coach said. “I felt he had a improved week, but we’re taking it step by step. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the players that provide the best chance.”
Shakir led the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
Allen was frustrated 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 tonight,” he said. “Whatever scenario and any circumstance, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
