Little went right for Josh Allen in a disappointing game on Thursday evening against the Texans.
Yet he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a win before an late pick in the last moments sealed their fate in a close defeat.
The quarterback took back-to-back tackles for loss on the Bills’ last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to another teammate.
After a pre-snap infraction created 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 win it there at the end,” Josh Allen stated. “We did a solid job of staying in it and our defensive unit saved us a couple of times. We’ve got find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was tough for Allen to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a career-high on eight occasions and pressured four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and zero scores after accounting for six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay last week.
“When they pressure our quarterback 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like 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 rest of the season. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to rise after a sack in the first half. He indicated he was fine and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being contacted so frequently on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I encountered a few myself. I need to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I was losing ground.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to top the Houston defense. His second one came when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson got up and chased him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt early in the third.
Buffalo competed for a second straight game without receiver Keon Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier benched for the opening drive of a loss to New England in Week 5 after also being delayed for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We’re just taking it day by day,” McDermott said. “I thought he had a improved week, but we’re taking it step by step. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the guys that give us the best chance.”
Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t execute down the stretch.
In the end, we must perform, and we failed to succeed of that tonight,” he concluded. “No matter the situation and any circumstance, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
