Very little went well for Josh Allen in a disappointing contest on Thursday evening versus the Houston Texans.
And still he nearly managed to driving the Bills to a victory before an late pick in the final minute ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.
The quarterback took back-to-back sacks on the team's final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a quick throw from Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
Following a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth down situation for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute remaining.
“We had a chance to win it there at the end,” Allen said. “We did a solid job of hanging tough and our defensive unit bailed us out a few instances. We must figure it out, and we didn’t.”
Proved tough for Allen to establish rhythm on a night he was sacked a career-high eight times and pressured four additional instances. The QB threw for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.
Whenever they hit our QB 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach Sean McDermott commented. “I don’t like that stat at all. It’s just not a safe way to play and it isn't 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 slow to get up after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was OK and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being hit so frequently on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I ran into a few personally. I need to be more effective at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I was losing ground.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had two and a half tackles for loss to top the Houston defense. His second one occurred when he almost sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and Anderson got up and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt early in the third.
The Bills competed for a second straight game without wideout Keon Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their last game. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a defeat to New England in the fifth week after also being late for a team session.
No change. We are approaching it day by day,” the coach said. “I thought he had a better week, but we’re handling it one day at a time. It was not that it was ignored, 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 were unable to execute in crucial moments.
In the end, we must perform, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he concluded. “No matter the situation and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
