Very little went right for Josh Allen in a tough game on Thursday evening versus the Texans.
And still he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a 23-19 loss.
Allen took consecutive tackles for loss on the Bills’ final possession, leading to a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (7-4) gained significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
After a false-start penalty led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds remaining.
“We had a chance to win it there at the end,” Allen stated. “We did a solid job of staying in it and our defensive unit saved us a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved difficult for the signal-caller to get anything going on a evening he was brought down a personal-worst on eight occasions and pressured four other times. Allen passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six TDs in a win over Tampa Bay last week.
“When they pressure our QB a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It’s just not a safe way to play and it’s not a good way to keep our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We need to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to get up after a tackle in the first half. He indicated he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being hit so frequently during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I ran into a few myself. I need to be better at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself going backwards.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to lead the Texans. His second one came when he nearly took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and the defender rose and chased him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt early in the third.
The Bills played for a second consecutive matchup absent wideout Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was earlier benched for the first series of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after also being delayed 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’re taking it step by step. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 yards and Cook had 116 yards and a score.
The quarterback was frustrated that the team couldn’t execute down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we’ve got perform, and we failed to succeed of that tonight,” he concluded. “Whatever situation and whatever condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
