Very little went right for Josh Allen in a tough game Thursday night versus the Houston Texans.
And still he nearly managed to willing the Bills to a win before an late pick in the final minute ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.
Allen endured back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) gained 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to another teammate.
After a false-start penalty led to a fourth down situation for the Bills, Calen Bullock intercepted the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds remaining.
“We had a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a good job of staying in it and our defensive unit bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved tough for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a career-high eight times and hit four other times. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.
“When they hit our quarterback a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It is not a safe way to play and it isn't a good way to preserve our field general in good shape for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to get up after a sack in the first half. He said he was fine and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being contacted so many times during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I ran into a couple personally. I’ve got to be more effective at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I was going backwards.”
Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to top the Houston defense. His second one occurred when he nearly took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and the defender got up and chased him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt early in the third.
The Bills competed for a second consecutive matchup without receiver Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was previously held out for the first series of a loss to New England in the fifth week after also being delayed for a team session.
No change. We are approaching it one day at a time,” McDermott said. “I thought he had a better week, but we’re taking it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the players that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir led the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills were unable to execute down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we’ve got perform, and we didn’t do a good job of that tonight,” he concluded. “No matter the scenario and whatever circumstance, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”