Very little went well for Josh Allen in a frustrating game Thursday night versus the Houston Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to driving the Bills to a victory before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a 23-19 loss.
The quarterback took back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate.
After a pre-snap infraction created a fourth down situation for the Bills, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's throw at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds left.
“We had a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defensive unit bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was tough for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a career-high on eight occasions and hit four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after producing six touchdowns in a win over the Buccaneers last week.
“When they pressure our quarterback a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott said. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it isn't a good way to keep our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We need to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was slow to get up after a tackle in the first half. He indicated he was fine and that his left 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 said. “I encountered a few myself. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I was going backwards.”
Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 tackles for loss to top the Texans. His second one came when he nearly took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and Anderson got up and pursued him downfield 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 without wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was previously benched for the opening drive of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being delayed for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We’re just taking it day by day,” the coach noted. “I felt he had a better week, but we’re handling it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the players that give us the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Bills with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 yards and a score.
Allen was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t make plays in crucial moments.
In the end, we must perform, and we failed to do a good job of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the scenario and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to find a way, and we didn’t.”
