Very little clicked for Josh Allen in a frustrating game Thursday night versus the Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to willing the Bills to a victory before an late pick in the final minute ended their hopes in a close defeat.
The quarterback took back-to-back sacks on the team's final possession, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (7-4) gained 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, a Texans defender intercepted the quarterback's pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.
“We had a opportunity to win it there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of staying in it and our defensive unit bailed us out a couple of times. We must figure it out, and we didn’t.”
It was difficult for Allen to get anything going on a night he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and pressured four additional instances. Allen passed for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after accounting for six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers last week.
Whenever they pressure our quarterback a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It’s just not a healthy way to play and it isn't a smart way to preserve our field general healthy for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”
Allen was sluggish to rise after a sack in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was OK and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so frequently during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I encountered a few personally. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I found myself losing ground.”
Allen lost 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 tackles for loss to lead the Texans. His second one came when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and the defender 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 competed for a second straight game without receiver Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was previously benched for the first series of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being delayed for a team session.
No change. We are approaching it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I thought he had a improved week, but we are taking it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we opted for the players that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir topped the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and Cook had 116 yards and a score.
Allen was disappointed that the Bills couldn’t execute in crucial moments.
In the end, we must execute, and we didn’t do a good job of that tonight,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and whatever condition, we need to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
