Little went right for Josh Allen in a frustrating game Thursday night against the Houston Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to driving the Bills to a win before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a close defeat.
The quarterback endured consecutive sacks on the Bills’ final possession, leading to a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
After a pre-snap infraction created a fourth down situation for Buffalo, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.
“We had a chance to come out on top there at the end,” Josh Allen stated. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defensive unit saved us a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was tough for Allen to establish rhythm on a night he was brought down a career-high eight times and pressured four other times. Allen passed for 253 yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.
“When they pressure our quarterback a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach 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 quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”
Allen was slow 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 landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so many times on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I encountered a few personally. I’ve got to be more effective at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I found myself losing ground.”
Allen lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 sacks to top the Texans. His second one came when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and Anderson got up and chased him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt early in the third.
The Bills played for a second consecutive matchup absent wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was late to a team meeting before their last game. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a loss to New England in Week 5 after also being delayed for a team session.
“Nothing new. We are approaching it one day at a time,” the coach noted. “I thought he had a better week, but we’re taking it step by step. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir led the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a score.
The quarterback was frustrated that the team couldn’t execute down the stretch.
In the end, we’ve got perform, and we failed to do a good job of that this evening,” he said. “Whatever situation and whatever condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
