Very little went right for Josh Allen in a disappointing contest Thursday night against the Houston Texans.
Yet he came close to willing the Bills to a win before an interception in the final minute ended their hopes in a close defeat.
The quarterback endured back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's final possession, resulting in a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a lateral to another teammate.
After a pre-snap infraction created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds left.
We possessed a chance to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Allen said. “We did a solid job of staying in it and our defensive unit saved us a few instances. We must figure it out, and we didn’t.”
Proved difficult for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a night he was sacked a career-high on eight occasions and hit four other times. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six TDs in a win over Tampa Bay the previous week.
Whenever they hit our QB a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It is not a safe way to play and it isn't a smart way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was slow to get up after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was asked about being contacted so many times during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a couple personally. I’ve got to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I was going backwards.”
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 came when he almost sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and the defender rose and pursued him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup absent wideout Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their last game. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a defeat to New England in the fifth week after also being late for a team session.
No change. We are approaching it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we’re handling it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that give us the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was disappointed that the team couldn’t execute down the stretch.
In the end, we must execute, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he said. “No matter the situation and any condition, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”
