Little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a tough game Thursday night against the Texans.
And still he nearly managed to willing the Bills to a win before an late pick in the final minute sealed their fate in a 23-19 loss.
Allen took consecutive tackles for loss on the Bills’ last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (with seven wins) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.
After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's throw at the 9-yard line with under half a minute left.
We possessed a chance to come out on top there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of hanging tough and our defense saved us a few instances. We must find a way, and we didn’t.”
It was tough for the signal-caller to get anything going on a night he was sacked a career-high eight times and hit four other times. Allen passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over Tampa Bay last week.
Whenever they hit our QB a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It is not a healthy way to compete and it isn't a smart way to preserve our field general healthy for the rest of the season. We’ve got to play better.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to rise after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was OK and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being hit so many times on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I ran into a few myself. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”
Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Houston defense. Another sack occurred when he nearly took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and the defender rose and chased him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt early in the third.
The Bills competed for a second consecutive matchup absent wideout Keon Coleman after he was again a non-participant 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 the fifth week after also being late for a team session.
No change. We’re just taking it day by day,” McDermott said. “I felt he had a better week, but we’re taking it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 yards and a score.
The quarterback was frustrated that the team couldn’t execute in crucial moments.
In the end, we’ve got perform, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he said. “Whatever scenario and whatever circumstance, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
