Little went right for Josh Allen in a tough contest Thursday night against the Houston Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to driving the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an interception in the last moments sealed their fate in a 23-19 loss.
Allen endured back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's last drive, resulting in a long fourth down, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up significant yardage on a quick throw from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate.
After a false-start penalty led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, a Texans defender intercepted the quarterback's throw at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds remaining.
We possessed a chance to win it there at the end,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a solid job of hanging tough and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We must find a way, and we didn’t.”
Proved tough for Allen to get anything going on a night he was sacked a personal-worst eight times and hit four other times. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six touchdowns in a win over Tampa Bay last week.
Whenever they pressure our quarterback 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It’s just not a healthy way to play and it isn't a smart way to preserve our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”
Allen was sluggish to get up after a tackle in the first half. He indicated he was fine and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being contacted so many times during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I encountered a few personally. I need to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I was going backwards.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Texans. His second one occurred when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson got up and pursued him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills competed for a second straight game without receiver Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was previously benched for the opening drive of a loss to New England in the fifth week after additionally being delayed for a team session.
No change. We’re just taking it one day at a time,” the coach said. “I thought he had a better week, but we are taking it step by step. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that provide the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a score.
The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills were unable to make plays in crucial moments.
In the end, we must execute, and we didn’t do a good job of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the scenario and whatever circumstance, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”
