Little went well for Josh Allen in a disappointing game Thursday night versus the Houston Texans.
And still he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a win before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a 23-19 loss.
The quarterback endured consecutive sacks on the team's last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) gained 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to another teammate.
After a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for the Bills, Calen Bullock picked off Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds left.
We possessed a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen said. “Our team performed a solid job of hanging tough and our defensive unit saved us a couple of times. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved tough for Allen to get anything going on a night he was sacked a career-high on eight occasions and hit four other times. The QB threw for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after producing six TDs in a win over Tampa Bay last week.
Whenever they hit our QB a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It’s just not a healthy way to play and it isn't a smart way to preserve our field general in good shape for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to rise after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He said he was OK and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so many times on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple personally. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I was losing ground.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Houston defense. His second one occurred when he nearly sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson rose and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills played for a second consecutive matchup absent wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their last game. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a loss to the Patriots in the fifth week after also being delayed for a meeting.
No change. We’re just taking it one day at a time,” the coach said. “I felt he had a better week, but we are taking it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir led the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was disappointed that the Bills couldn’t 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. “Whatever scenario and any circumstance, we’ve got to find a way, and we didn’t.”
