Very little clicked for Josh Allen in a disappointing contest Thursday night against the Texans.
Yet he came close to driving the Buffalo Bills to a win before an interception in the last moments sealed their fate in a close defeat.
Allen endured consecutive tackles for loss on the Bills’ last drive, resulting in a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who flipped a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
Following a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for the Bills, Calen Bullock intercepted the quarterback's pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.
“We had a opportunity to win it there at the end,” Josh Allen stated. “We did a solid job of staying in it and our defensive unit bailed us out a couple of times. We’ve got find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was tough for Allen to establish rhythm on a night he was sacked a career-high eight times and pressured four other times. The QB threw for 253 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.
“When they hit our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach Sean McDermott commented. “I don’t like that stat at all. It is not a safe way to play and it’s not a smart way to preserve our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We need to play better.”
Allen was slow to get up after a sack in the first half. He indicated he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being contacted so frequently during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I encountered a couple personally. I’ve got to be better at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half tackles for loss to top the Houston defense. Another sack came when he almost sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson rose and chased him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup without receiver Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier held out for the opening drive of a loss to New England in the fifth week after additionally being late for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We are taking it day by day,” the coach noted. “I felt he had a better week, but we are handling it step by step. It was not that it was ignored, but we went with the players that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
The quarterback was disappointed that the team couldn’t execute in crucial moments.
In the end, we must perform, and we didn’t do a good job of that this evening,” he concluded. “No matter the situation and any circumstance, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
