Very little went right for Josh Allen in a disappointing contest on Thursday evening versus the 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 loss.
The quarterback endured back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's final possession, resulting in a long fourth down, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who flipped a lateral to another teammate.
After a false-start penalty led to a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's pass at the 9-yard line with under half a minute left.
“We had a chance to win it there at the end,” Allen said. “We did a solid job of staying in it and our defense saved us a few instances. We’ve got find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved tough for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a night he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and pressured four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers last week.
Whenever they hit our quarterback 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach Sean McDermott commented. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It’s just not a safe way to compete and it’s not a smart way to keep our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to rise after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being hit so frequently during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a couple personally. I’ve got to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself going backwards.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 sacks to lead the Texans. His second one occurred when he nearly took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and Anderson rose and chased him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills played for a second straight game absent wideout Keon Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was tardy to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was earlier held out for the first series of a loss to New England in Week 5 after also being late for a team session.
No change. We are approaching it one day at a time,” the coach said. “I felt he had a better week, but we are handling it step by step. It was not that it was ignored, but we opted for the players that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
Allen was disappointed that the team were unable to make plays in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we must execute, and we didn’t do a good job of that tonight,” he concluded. “No matter the scenario and whatever condition, we’ve got to find a way, and we didn’t.”
