Very little went well for Josh Allen in a tough game on Thursday evening versus the Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to willing the Buffalo Bills to a win before an interception in the final minute sealed their fate in a close loss.
Allen endured back-to-back tackles for loss on the Bills’ final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.
After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, a Texans defender intercepted the quarterback's throw at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds remaining.
“We had a chance to come out on top there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defensive unit saved us a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”
It was difficult for the signal-caller to get anything going on a night he was brought down a personal-worst eight times and pressured four other times. Allen passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after accounting for six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.
“When they pressure our quarterback a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It’s just not a safe way to play and it’s not a smart way to preserve our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to get up after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was OK and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being hit so many times on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I encountered a few myself. I need to be more effective at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I found myself losing ground.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half sacks to lead the Houston defense. Another sack occurred when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and Anderson rose and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt early in the third.
Buffalo played for a second straight game absent wideout Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was earlier benched for the opening drive of a loss to New England in Week 5 after also being late for a team session.
No change. We are approaching it day by day,” the coach said. “I thought he had a better week, but we are taking it step by step. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the guys that provide the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
The quarterback was disappointed that the Bills were unable to make plays in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we must perform, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he concluded. “No matter the scenario and whatever condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
