Little went well for Josh Allen in a tough game Thursday night versus the Houston Texans.
And still he nearly managed to driving the Buffalo Bills to a win before an late pick in the final minute ended their hopes in a 23-19 loss.
Allen took back-to-back sacks on the team's final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up significant yardage on a quick throw from Josh 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, a Texans defender intercepted Allen’s throw at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.
“We had a chance to come out on top there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of hanging tough and our defense saved us a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”
Proved tough for Allen to get anything going on a night he was sacked a personal-worst eight times and pressured four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six TDs in a victory over the Buccaneers last week.
“When they hit our quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It is not a safe way to compete and it’s not a smart way to preserve our field general in good shape for the rest of the season. We need to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was slow to rise after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being contacted so frequently during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I encountered a few myself. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I was going backwards.”
Allen lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Houston defense. His second one occurred when he almost sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and the defender rose and chased him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt early in the third.
Buffalo played for a second straight game without wideout Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier benched for the first series of a defeat to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being late for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it day by day,” McDermott said. “I felt he had a improved week, but we’re taking it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
Allen was frustrated that the team couldn’t make plays in crucial moments.
In the end, we’ve got perform, and we failed to succeed of that tonight,” he concluded. “Whatever situation and whatever condition, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”
