Very little clicked for Josh Allen in a disappointing contest on Thursday evening against the Texans.
Yet he came close to driving the Buffalo Bills to a win before an late pick in the final minute ended their hopes in a 23-19 loss.
Allen took consecutive tackles for loss on the Bills’ final possession, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth down situation for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off Allen’s pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute remaining.
We possessed a opportunity to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Allen said. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defense saved us a couple of times. We’ve got find a way, and we didn’t.”
It was difficult for Allen to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a personal-worst eight times and pressured four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 yards with two interceptions and zero scores after accounting for six touchdowns in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.
Whenever they hit our QB a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It is not a healthy 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.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to get up after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was OK and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being hit so frequently on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I ran into a couple myself. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I was losing ground.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 sacks to top the Houston defense. His second one occurred when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and Anderson got up and pursued him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt early in the third.
The Bills played for a second straight game without wideout Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was late to a squad gathering before their last game. He was earlier held out for the first series of a defeat to the Patriots in the fifth week after also being delayed for a meeting.
No change. We’re just taking it day by day,” the coach noted. “I thought he had a better week, but we’re taking it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the players that give us the best chance.”
Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a score.
The quarterback was disappointed that the team couldn’t make plays down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we’ve got perform, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the scenario and any condition, we need to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
