Very little went well for Josh Allen in a tough game Thursday night versus the Texans.
Yet he came close to willing the Bills to a win before an late pick in the final minute ended their hopes in a close defeat.
The quarterback endured back-to-back sacks on the team's final possession, leading to a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (with seven wins) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, a Texans defender intercepted the quarterback's throw at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.
“We had a opportunity to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen said. “We did a solid job of staying in it and our defense saved us a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”
Proved tough for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a night he was brought down a career-high eight times and pressured four other times. Allen passed for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a win over Tampa Bay the previous week.
Whenever they pressure our quarterback 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 safe way to play and it’s not a smart way to keep our field general healthy for the remaining games. We need to play better.”
Allen was slow to get up after a sack in the first half. He indicated he was fine and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so frequently during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I ran into a couple myself. I need to be better at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself going backwards.”
Allen lost 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to top the Houston defense. Another sack came when he nearly sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and Anderson got up and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo played 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 opening drive of a defeat to the Patriots in Week 5 after also being delayed for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We are approaching it day by day,” the coach noted. “I felt he had a better week, but we’re taking it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the guys that give us the best chance.”
Shakir topped the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
Allen was disappointed that the Bills were unable to make plays down the stretch.
In the end, we must execute, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he concluded. “No matter the scenario and whatever condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
