Little went well for Josh Allen in a frustrating game on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.
Yet he came close to willing the Bills to a win before an interception in the last moments ended their hopes in a close defeat.
The quarterback took consecutive sacks on the team's last drive, leading to a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to a receiver, who flipped a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
After a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's throw at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds left.
We possessed a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Allen said. “We did a solid job of hanging tough and our defensive unit bailed us out a couple of times. We’ve got find a way, and we didn’t.”
It was tough for Allen to get anything going on a night he was brought down a career-high eight times and pressured four other times. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after producing six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay last week.
Whenever they hit our quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Bills 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 smart way to preserve our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We need to play better.”
Allen was sluggish to get up after a sack in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was OK and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being contacted so frequently on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I ran into a couple personally. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I found myself losing ground.”
Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Texans. Another sack came when he almost sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and the defender got up and pursued him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo played for a second straight game without wideout Keon Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a defeat to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being delayed for a team session.
No change. We are taking it one day at a time,” the coach noted. “I thought he had a better week, but we’re taking it step by step. It was not that it was ignored, but we opted for the players that give us the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Bills with eight receptions for 110 yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
The quarterback was frustrated that the team couldn’t execute in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we must perform, and we didn’t do a good job of that this evening,” he concluded. “No matter the scenario and whatever condition, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
