Very little clicked for Josh Allen in a disappointing contest on Thursday evening versus the Houston Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to driving the Bills to a win before an late pick in the final minute sealed their fate in a 23-19 loss.
The quarterback took back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's last drive, resulting in a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
Following a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.
We possessed a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen stated. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out a couple of times. We’ve got find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was difficult for the signal-caller to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a career-high on eight occasions and hit four other times. The QB threw for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after accounting for six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay last week.
Whenever they hit our QB 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It is not a healthy way to play and it isn't a good way to keep our field general in good shape for the remaining games. We need to play better.”
Allen was sluggish to rise after a tackle in the first half. He indicated he was fine and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being contacted so many times on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I ran into a few personally. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I was losing ground.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to top the Houston defense. Another sack occurred when he nearly sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and Anderson got up and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo played for a second straight game without wideout Keon Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was previously benched for the first series of a defeat to New England in the fifth week after additionally being late for a meeting.
No change. We’re just approaching it one day at a time,” the coach noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we’re taking it one day at a time. It was not that it was ignored, but we opted for the players that give us the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t execute in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we’ve got perform, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever situation and any circumstance, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”
