Little went right for Josh Allen in a tough game Thursday night versus the Houston Texans.
Yet he came close to driving the Bills to a victory before an interception in the final minute ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.
The quarterback endured consecutive tackles for loss on the team's last drive, resulting in a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) picked up significant yardage on a quick throw from Allen to a receiver, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate.
Following a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for Buffalo, a Texans defender picked off Allen’s throw at the 9-yard line with under half a minute left.
“We had 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 bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got find a way, and we didn’t.”
It was difficult for the signal-caller to get anything going on a evening he was brought down a career-high eight times and hit four other times. The QB 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 safe way to play and it isn't a smart way to keep our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Allen was slow to rise after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was asked about being contacted so frequently on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I encountered a couple myself. I need to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I was losing ground.”
Allen lost 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to lead the Houston defense. His second one occurred when he nearly took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and the defender got up and pursued him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills played for a second straight game absent receiver Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was earlier benched 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’re just approaching it one day at a time,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we’re handling it step by step. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir led the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 yards and a score.
Allen was frustrated that the team were unable to execute in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we didn’t do a good job of that this evening,” he said. “Whatever situation and whatever condition, we need to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
