Little went right for Josh Allen in a frustrating game Thursday night versus the Houston Texans.
And still he came close to driving the Bills to a victory before an late pick in the final minute sealed their fate in a 23-19 defeat.
Allen took back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ final possession, resulting in a long fourth down, but Buffalo (with seven wins) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
After a false-start penalty created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, a Texans defender intercepted the quarterback's throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.
“We had a chance to win it there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We must figure it out, and we didn’t.”
It was difficult for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a career-high eight times and hit four additional instances. Allen threw for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after producing six touchdowns in a win over Tampa Bay the previous week.
“When they hit our quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It is not a safe way to compete and it isn't a smart way to keep our quarterback in good shape for the rest of the season. We need to improve our performance.”
Allen was sluggish to get up 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 hit so many times on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I encountered a few personally. I’ve got to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself going backwards.”
Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half sacks to lead the Houston defense. Another sack occurred when he nearly sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and the defender got up and chased him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo played for a second consecutive matchup absent wideout Keon Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a squad gathering before their last game. He was previously held out for the first series of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after also being delayed for a meeting.
No change. We’re just approaching it one day at a time,” McDermott said. “I felt he had a better week, but we’re taking it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir topped the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
Allen was disappointed that the team were unable to make plays down the stretch.
In the end, we must execute, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and whatever condition, we’ve got to find a way, and we didn’t.”
