Little went right for Josh Allen in a frustrating contest Thursday night against the Houston Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an interception in the last moments sealed their fate in a 23-19 defeat.
Allen took consecutive tackles for loss on the Bills’ last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) gained significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
Following a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, a Texans defender picked off Allen’s throw at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds remaining.
We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the end,” Josh Allen stated. “Our team performed a good job of hanging tough and our defense saved us a couple of times. We’ve got find a way, and we didn’t.”
Proved difficult for Allen to get anything going on a night he was sacked a career-high eight times and hit four additional instances. The QB threw for 253 yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after accounting for six touchdowns in a victory over the Buccaneers last week.
Whenever they pressure our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott commented. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It is not a safe way to play and it’s not a smart way to preserve our field general in good shape for the remaining games. We’ve got to play better.”
Allen was slow to rise after a sack in the first half. He indicated he was OK and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so frequently on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I ran into a couple personally. I’ve got to be better at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I found myself losing ground.”
Allen lost 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to top the Texans. His second one occurred when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson rose and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo played for a second straight game without receiver Keon Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a defeat to New England in Week 5 after additionally being late for a team session.
“Nothing new. We’re just taking it one day at a time,” McDermott said. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are taking it step by step. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
Allen was frustrated that the team couldn’t make plays down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he concluded. “No matter the situation and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to find a way, and we came up short.”
