Little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating contest on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to willing the Bills to a win before an late pick in the last moments sealed their fate in a close loss.
The quarterback endured consecutive tackles for loss on the Bills’ final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who flipped a lateral to another teammate.
Following a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds remaining.
“We had a opportunity to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen stated. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defensive unit saved us a couple of times. We’ve got find a way, and we didn’t.”
Proved tough for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst eight times and pressured four other times. The QB passed for 253 yards with two interceptions and zero scores after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over Tampa Bay the previous week.
Whenever they hit our quarterback 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it isn't a good way to preserve our field general healthy for the rest of the season. We need to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to get up after a tackle in the first half. He indicated he was OK and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being contacted so frequently on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I encountered a few myself. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I found myself going backwards.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Texans. His second one occurred when he nearly took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and Anderson rose and pursued him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt early in the third.
Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup without receiver Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was late to a squad gathering before their last game. He was previously benched for the first series of a loss to New England in the fifth week after also being late for a team session.
No change. We’re just taking it one day at a time,” McDermott said. “I felt he had a improved week, but we’re handling it one day at a time. It was not that it was ignored, but we opted for the guys that give us the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills were unable to execute in crucial moments.
In the end, we’ve got perform, and we didn’t do a good job of that this evening,” he concluded. “No matter the scenario and whatever condition, we need to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
