Little went right for Josh Allen in a tough contest Thursday night against the Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to driving the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an late pick in the final minute ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.
The quarterback took back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ last drive, resulting in a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a lateral to another teammate.
Following a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, Calen Bullock intercepted the quarterback's pass at the 9-yard line with under half a minute remaining.
“We had a chance to win it there at the end,” Allen stated. “We did a solid job of staying in it and our defense saved us a couple of times. We must figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved difficult for Allen to establish rhythm on a night he was sacked a career-high eight times and pressured four additional instances. The QB threw for 253 yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six TDs in a win over Tampa Bay last week.
Whenever they hit our quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott commented. “I don’t like that stat at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it isn't a good way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”
Allen was slow to get up after a tackle in the first half. He indicated he was OK and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being contacted so many times during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a couple myself. I need to be better at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself going backwards.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 sacks to top the Texans. Another sack occurred when he almost sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson rose and chased him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt early in the third.
Buffalo competed 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 previous contest. He was earlier benched for the first series of a loss to New England in the fifth week after also being delayed for a team session.
No change. We are approaching it one day at a time,” McDermott said. “I felt he had a improved week, but we’re taking it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that give us the best chance.”
Shakir led the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 yards and Cook had 116 yards and a score.
The quarterback was frustrated that the team couldn’t execute down the stretch.
In the end, we’ve got perform, and we didn’t do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever scenario and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to find a way, and we didn’t.”
