Very little went well for Josh Allen in a tough contest on Thursday evening versus the Texans.
And still he nearly managed to driving the Bills to a win before an late pick in the final minute ended their hopes in a close defeat.
Allen took consecutive tackles for loss on the team's final possession, leading to a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (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-and-6 for Buffalo, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds remaining.
We possessed a chance to come out on top there at the end,” Allen said. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”
Proved difficult for Allen to establish rhythm on a night he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and pressured four other times. Allen threw for 253 yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six TDs in a victory over the Buccaneers last week.
“When they pressure our quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach Sean McDermott commented. “I don’t like that stat at all. It is not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a good way to keep our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We need to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to get up after a sack in the first half. He said he was OK and that his left 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 unpleasant,” he remarked. “I ran into a few personally. I need to be better at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I found myself going backwards.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had two and a half tackles for loss to top the Houston defense. Another sack came when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and Anderson rose and pursued him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo played for a second consecutive matchup absent receiver Keon Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was late to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was earlier held out for the first series of a defeat to the Patriots in the fifth week after also being late for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We are taking it one day at a time,” the coach said. “I thought he had a better week, but we are handling it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that give us the best chance.”
Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 yards and Cook had 116 yards and a score.
The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t make plays in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we’ve got perform, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and any condition, we’ve got to find a way, and we didn’t.”
