Very little went right for Josh Allen in a disappointing contest Thursday night versus the Texans.
And still he nearly managed to driving the Bills to a win before an interception in the last moments sealed their fate in a close defeat.
Allen endured back-to-back tackles for loss on the Bills’ final possession, resulting in a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
Following a pre-snap infraction created a fourth down situation for Buffalo, a Texans defender intercepted the quarterback's throw at the 9-yard line with under half a minute remaining.
We possessed a chance to come out on top there at the end,” Josh Allen stated. “Our team performed a good job of staying in it and our defensive unit bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”
Proved tough for Allen to establish rhythm on a night he was brought down a career-high on eight occasions and pressured four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.
Whenever they hit our QB a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach Sean McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It is not a safe way to compete and it isn't a smart way to keep our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to rise after a sack in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was fine and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so many times on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple myself. I need to be more effective at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I was going backwards.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had two and a half tackles for loss to top the Houston defense. Another sack came when he almost sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and the defender got up and pursued him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt early in the third.
The Bills played 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 benched for the first series of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being late for a team session.
No change. We’re just taking it day by day,” McDermott said. “I felt he had a improved 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 players that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a score.
Allen was disappointed that the Bills were unable to execute down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we’ve got perform, and we failed to do a good job of that this evening,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and any condition, we need to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
