Very little went right for Josh Allen in a tough contest on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.
And still he nearly managed to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an interception in the final minute sealed their fate in a 23-19 loss.
The quarterback took consecutive sacks on the Bills’ last drive, resulting in a long fourth down, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up significant yardage on a quick throw from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
After a false-start penalty led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.
“We had a chance to come out on top there at the end,” Allen said. “We did a solid job of staying in it and our defensive unit bailed us out a couple of times. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved tough for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a evening he was sacked a career-high on eight occasions and hit four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a win over Tampa Bay the previous week.
“When they hit our QB a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It’s just not a safe way to compete and it isn't a good way to keep our quarterback in good shape for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”
Allen was slow to get up after a sack in the first half. He indicated he was OK and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being hit so frequently during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I ran into a few personally. I’ve got to be more effective at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I was losing ground.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half sacks to lead the Houston defense. His second one occurred when he almost sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and Anderson rose and chased him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt early in the third.
Buffalo played for a second consecutive matchup absent wideout Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a squad gathering before their last game. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a loss to New England in the fifth week after also being delayed for a meeting.
No change. We’re just taking it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that give us the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
Allen was disappointed that the team were unable to make plays in crucial moments.
In the end, we’ve got execute, and we failed to do a good job of that this evening,” he said. “Whatever situation and any circumstance, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”