Little went well for Josh Allen in a disappointing game Thursday night versus the Texans.
Yet he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an late pick in the final minute sealed their fate in a 23-19 defeat.
The quarterback endured back-to-back tackles for loss on the Bills’ final possession, leading to a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a lateral to another teammate.
After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, Calen Bullock intercepted the quarterback's pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds remaining.
“We had a chance to win it there at the end,” Josh Allen stated. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defensive unit saved us a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was tough for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a night he was sacked a career-high eight times and pressured four other times. Allen threw for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and zero scores after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.
Whenever they hit our quarterback 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It is not a healthy way to play and it isn't a good way to keep our field general healthy for the rest of the season. We’ve got to play better.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to get up after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He said he was fine and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. 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 more effective at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I was going backwards.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half tackles for loss to top the Houston defense. His second one occurred when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and Anderson rose and chased him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt early in the third.
The Bills played for a second consecutive matchup absent wideout Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier benched for the first series of a defeat to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being late for a team session.
No change. We’re just taking it one day at a time,” the coach noted. “I thought he had a better week, but we’re taking it one day at a time. It was not that it was ignored, but we opted for the players that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills were unable to make plays in crucial moments.
In the end, we must perform, and we failed to succeed of that tonight,” he said. “No matter the scenario and any condition, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”
