Very little clicked for Josh Allen in a disappointing game on Thursday evening versus the Texans.
And still he came close to driving the Bills to a victory before an late pick in the last moments sealed their fate in a 23-19 defeat.
Allen took back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ final possession, leading to a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) gained significant yardage on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a lateral to another teammate.
After a false-start penalty led to a fourth down situation for the Bills, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.
“We had a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “We did a solid job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved difficult for Allen to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a career-high eight times and hit four other times. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a win over Tampa Bay the previous week.
Whenever they hit our QB 12 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 play and it’s not a good way to keep our field general in good shape for the remaining games. We need 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 left shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so frequently during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I encountered a few personally. I need to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I found myself going backwards.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to lead the Houston defense. His second one occurred when he nearly sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and Anderson rose and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills played for a second consecutive matchup absent receiver Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was previously held out for the first series of a loss to New England in Week 5 after additionally being delayed for a meeting.
No change. We are approaching it day by day,” the coach said. “I felt he had a better week, but we are taking it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we opted for the players that give us the best chance.”
Shakir topped the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was disappointed that the Bills couldn’t make plays in crucial moments.
In the end, we must perform, and we failed to succeed of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever situation and any condition, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”
