Little went well for Josh Allen in a frustrating contest on Thursday evening versus the Texans.
Yet he came close to willing the Bills to a win before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a 23-19 loss.
The quarterback endured back-to-back sacks on the team's last drive, leading to a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
Following a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for Buffalo, a Texans defender picked off Allen’s pass at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds left.
We possessed a chance to win it there at the end,” Josh Allen stated. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out a couple of times. We must find a way, and we didn’t.”
Proved difficult for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a night he was brought down a personal-worst eight times and pressured four other times. Allen threw for 253 yards with two interceptions and zero scores after accounting for six touchdowns in a victory over the Buccaneers last week.
“When they pressure our quarterback 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It’s just not a safe way to play and it isn't a smart way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was slow to rise after a tackle in the first half. He indicated he was OK and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being contacted so many times during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I encountered a couple myself. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 sacks to top the Texans. His second one occurred when he nearly sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and the defender got up and chased him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt early in the third.
Buffalo played for a second straight game absent receiver Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was earlier held out for the opening drive of a defeat to New England in Week 5 after additionally being delayed for a team session.
“Nothing new. We are approaching it day by day,” McDermott said. “I felt 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 led the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 yards and Cook had 116 yards and a score.
Allen was disappointed that the team were unable to make plays in crucial moments.
In the end, we must perform, and we failed to do a good job of that this evening,” he concluded. “Whatever situation and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
