Very little clicked for Josh Allen in a frustrating game on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.
And still he came close to willing the Bills to a victory before an late pick in the final minute sealed their fate in a close loss.
Allen took consecutive tackles for loss on the team's last drive, leading to a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.
After a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for Buffalo, a Texans defender intercepted Allen’s pass at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds left.
“We had a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen said. “We did a solid job of staying in it and our defensive unit bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was difficult for Allen to get anything going on a evening he was brought down a personal-worst eight times and hit four other times. Allen threw for 253 yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over the Buccaneers last week.
Whenever they pressure our QB a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach Sean McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It’s just not a safe way to compete and it’s not a smart 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 rise after a sack in the first half. He indicated he was fine and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being hit so many times on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I encountered a couple myself. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I found myself going backwards.”
Allen surrendered 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to lead the Houston defense. Another sack occurred when he almost sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson rose and chased him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo competed for a second straight game absent receiver Keon Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their last game. He was earlier held out for the first series of a loss to New England in the fifth week after additionally being delayed for a meeting.
No change. We are taking it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I thought he had a better week, but we are taking it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
Allen was disappointed that the Bills couldn’t execute in crucial moments.
In the end, we must perform, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he said. “Whatever scenario and whatever condition, we’ve got to find a way, and we didn’t.”
