Little went right for Josh Allen in a tough contest Thursday night against the Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to willing the Bills to a win before an late pick in the final minute ended their hopes in a close loss.
Allen endured back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ final possession, resulting in a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) gained 44 yards on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
Following a pre-snap infraction created a fourth down situation for the Bills, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’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 bailed us out a few instances. We must figure it out, and we didn’t.”
It was tough for Allen to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a career-high on eight occasions and pressured four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers last week.
“When they hit our QB a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a good way to keep our field general in good shape for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was slow to get up after a tackle in the first half. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell 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 couple myself. I need to be better at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I found myself losing ground.”
Allen lost 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had two and a half tackles for loss to top the Texans. His second one occurred when he nearly sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and the defender got up and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills competed for a second consecutive matchup without receiver Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was previously held out for the first series of a loss to the Patriots in the fifth week after additionally being late for a meeting.
No change. We’re just approaching it day by day,” McDermott said. “I thought he had a improved week, but we are handling it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that provide the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 yards and Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was frustrated that the team were unable to make plays in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we must perform, and we didn’t do a good job of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the situation and any condition, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”
