Little went well for Josh Allen in a frustrating game Thursday night versus the Houston Texans.
Yet he came close to driving the Bills to a win before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a 23-19 loss.
Allen took back-to-back tackles for loss on the Bills’ final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (with seven wins) gained significant yardage on a short pass from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.
After a false-start penalty created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's throw at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds remaining.
We possessed a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a good job of hanging tough 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 Allen to establish rhythm on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst eight times and hit four additional instances. Allen passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after accounting for six touchdowns in a victory over the Buccaneers the previous week.
“When they hit our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It is not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a good way to preserve our field general healthy for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”
Allen was sluggish to get up after a tackle in the first half. He said he was fine and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so many times during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I encountered a few personally. I’ve got to be better at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”
Allen lost 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half tackles for loss to top the Texans. His second one occurred when he almost sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and the defender rose and chased him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo played for a second consecutive matchup absent wideout Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was previously held out for the first series of a loss 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 noted. “I felt he had a better week, but we’re handling it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir topped the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t execute down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we must execute, and we didn’t do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever scenario and any condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
