Very little went well for Josh Allen in a tough game Thursday night versus the Houston Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to driving the Bills to a victory before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a close loss.
Allen endured consecutive tackles for loss on the Bills’ last drive, resulting in a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) gained significant yardage on a quick throw from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.
Following a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s throw at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.
We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the end,” Allen stated. “We did 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 difficult for Allen to get anything going on a night he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 yards with two interceptions and zero scores after accounting for six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.
“When they hit our QB 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It’s just not a healthy way to play and it’s not a good way to keep our field general in good shape for the rest of the season. We’ve got to play better.”
Allen was sluggish to rise after a sack in the first half. He said he was OK and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so many times on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a few myself. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I was losing ground.”
Allen lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half sacks to lead the Texans. His second one occurred when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson got up and pursued him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo competed for a second straight game without receiver Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a defeat to New England in Week 5 after also being late for a team session.
“Nothing new. We are taking it one day at a time,” McDermott said. “I thought he had a better week, but we are taking it step by step. It was not that it was ignored, but we opted for the players 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 score.
The quarterback was disappointed that the Bills couldn’t make plays 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 find a way, and we came up short.”