Very little went right for Josh Allen in a frustrating game Thursday night against the Texans.
Yet he came close to willing the Bills to a win before an interception in the final minute ended their hopes in a close loss.
The quarterback took back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to another teammate.
After a pre-snap infraction created a fourth down situation for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.
“We had a chance to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “We did a solid job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out a couple of times. We’ve got find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was tough for the signal-caller to get anything going on a night he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four other times. The QB threw for 253 yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after accounting for six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.
“When they pressure our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott commented. “I don’t like that stat at all. It is not a healthy way to play and it isn't a smart way to keep our field general healthy for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to rise after a sack in the first half. He indicated he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so frequently on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple personally. I’ve got to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”
Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to top the Texans. Another sack came when he almost sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson got up and chased him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt early in the third.
Buffalo played for a second straight game without receiver Keon Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was tardy to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was earlier benched for the first series of a defeat to the Patriots in Week 5 after also being late for a meeting.
No change. We are taking it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I thought he had a improved week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It was not that it was ignored, but we opted for the players that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills were unable to make plays in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we must perform, and we failed to do a good job of that this evening,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and any circumstance, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”