Very little went right for Josh Allen in a frustrating game Thursday night against the Houston Texans.
And still he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a win before an late pick in the final minute sealed their fate in a 23-19 loss.
The quarterback endured back-to-back sacks on the team's last drive, resulting in a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) gained significant yardage on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who flipped a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
Following a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds remaining.
We possessed a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Josh Allen stated. “Our team performed a good job of hanging tough and our defense bailed us out a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”
Proved difficult for Allen to get anything going on a night he was brought down a career-high on eight occasions and pressured four additional instances. Allen threw for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after producing six touchdowns in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.
“When they pressure our quarterback 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It’s just not a healthy way to play and it isn't a smart way to keep our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We’ve got to play better.”
Josh Allen was slow to get up after a sack in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was fine and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so frequently on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a few myself. I’ve got to be better at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I was going backwards.”
Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Texans. Another sack occurred when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and the defender rose and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt early in the third.
The Bills played for a second straight game absent receiver 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 opening drive of a loss to New England in Week 5 after also being delayed for a team session.
No change. We’re just taking it day by day,” the coach said. “I thought he had a better week, but we’re handling it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we opted for the guys that give us 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 disappointed that the Bills couldn’t make plays down the stretch.
In the end, we must execute, and we didn’t do a good job of that this evening,” he concluded. “No matter the situation and any condition, we need to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
