Very little went well for Josh Allen in a tough contest on Thursday evening versus the Texans.
Yet he came close to driving the Buffalo Bills to a win before an interception 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 final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) gained 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
After a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for the Bills, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds left.
“We had a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defensive unit saved us a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”
It was tough for Allen to establish rhythm on a night he was sacked a personal-worst eight times and pressured four other times. The QB passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after producing six touchdowns in a victory over the Buccaneers last week.
“When they pressure our QB a dozen 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 good way to keep our field general in good shape for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to get up after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being contacted so many times during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I encountered a few myself. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself going backwards.”
Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 tackles for loss to top the Houston defense. Another sack came when he almost sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and the defender got up and pursued him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills competed for a second straight game without wideout Coleman after he was once more 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 defeat to the Patriots in the fifth week after also being late for a meeting.
No change. We’re just taking it one day at a time,” the coach said. “I thought he had a improved week, but we are handling it step by step. It was not that it was ignored, but we went with the players that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was disappointed that the Bills couldn’t execute in crucial moments.
In the end, we must perform, and we failed to do a good job of that this evening,” he concluded. “No matter the situation and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to find a way, and we didn’t.”
