Very little went right for Josh Allen in a tough contest on Thursday evening versus the Texans.
Yet he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an late pick in the final minute sealed their fate in a 23-19 defeat.
The quarterback took consecutive sacks on the Bills’ final possession, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
After a pre-snap infraction created a fourth down situation for the Bills, a Texans defender intercepted Allen’s throw at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.
“We had a opportunity to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defensive unit bailed us out a couple of times. We’ve got find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was tough for the signal-caller to get anything going on a evening he was brought down a career-high on eight occasions and hit four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six TDs in a win over Tampa Bay the previous week.
“When they hit our QB 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It is not a healthy way to play and it’s not a smart way to preserve our quarterback in good shape for the rest of the season. We need to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was slow to get up after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so frequently during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I encountered a few personally. I’ve got to be better at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself going backwards.”
Allen lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half sacks to lead the Texans. Another sack came when he nearly sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and the defender got up and pursued him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt early in the third.
Buffalo competed for a second straight game without wideout Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier held out for the first series of a defeat to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being delayed for a team session.
“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it day by day,” the coach noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are handling it step by step. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
Allen was disappointed that the team were unable to execute down the stretch.
In the end, we’ve got execute, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the scenario and any condition, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
