Very little went right for Josh Allen in a disappointing contest on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an late pick in the final minute sealed their fate in a 23-19 loss.
Allen took back-to-back tackles for loss on the Bills’ final possession, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
After a pre-snap infraction created a fourth down situation for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with under half a minute remaining.
“We had a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Josh Allen stated. “Our team performed a good job of staying in it and our defensive unit saved us a couple of times. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was difficult for Allen to get anything going on a night he was sacked a personal-worst eight times and pressured four other times. Allen threw for 253 yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after accounting for six touchdowns in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.
“When they hit our QB a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It is not a safe way to compete and it’s not a good way to preserve our field general in good shape for the rest of the season. We need to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was slow to get up after a sack in the first half. He indicated he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being contacted so frequently on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I ran into a few myself. I need to be more effective at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I found myself losing ground.”
Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 tackles for loss to top the Houston defense. His second one occurred when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson got up and chased him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt early in the third.
Buffalo competed for a second straight game without receiver Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was earlier held out for the first series of a defeat to New England in Week 5 after additionally being late for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We’re just 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 was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was frustrated that the team couldn’t execute down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we didn’t do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “No matter the scenario and whatever circumstance, we need to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
