Very little clicked for Josh Allen in a frustrating game on Thursday evening versus the Houston Texans.
Yet he came close to driving the Bills to a win before an interception in the final minute ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.
Allen endured back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's last drive, resulting in a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.
After a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s throw at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds remaining.
We possessed a chance to come out on top there at the end,” Josh Allen stated. “Our team performed a solid job of hanging tough and our defensive unit saved us a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved difficult for Allen to get anything going on a evening he was brought down a personal-worst eight times and pressured four other times. Allen threw for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six TDs in a win over Tampa Bay the previous week.
Whenever they hit our quarterback 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a smart way to preserve our field general in good shape for the rest of the season. We’ve got to play better.”
Allen was sluggish to rise after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He said he was OK and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being contacted so many times on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple personally. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to top the Houston defense. His second one occurred when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson got up and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt early in the third.
Buffalo competed for a second straight game without receiver Keon Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a squad gathering before their last game. He was earlier benched for the opening drive of a loss to New England in Week 5 after also being delayed for a team session.
“Nothing new. We’re just taking it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I thought he had a improved week, but we’re taking it step by step. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the players that provide the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
Allen was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t execute down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we must execute, and we failed to do a good job of that this evening,” he concluded. “No matter the situation and whatever circumstance, we need to find a way, and we didn’t.”
