Very little went right for Josh Allen in a frustrating contest on Thursday evening versus the Houston Texans.
And still he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a 23-19 loss.
The quarterback endured consecutive tackles for loss on the team's last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) gained significant yardage on a quick throw from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate.
Following a false-start penalty created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.
We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the end,” Allen stated. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defensive unit bailed us out a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved difficult for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four additional instances. The QB threw for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over the Buccaneers last week.
Whenever they pressure our quarterback a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It is not a healthy way to play and it isn't a good way to preserve our field general healthy for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”
Josh Allen was slow to rise after a sack in the first half. He indicated he was OK and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so many times on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I ran into a couple personally. I’ve got to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself going backwards.”
The Bills' QB lost 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 almost sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and the defender rose and chased him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo competed for a second straight game absent receiver Keon Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was late to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was earlier held out for the first series of a loss to New England in Week 5 after also being late for a team session.
No change. We’re just approaching it one day at a time,” the coach noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we’re taking it step by step. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the guys that provide the best chance.”
Shakir topped the Bills with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 yards and a score.
The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills were unable to execute in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we’ve got perform, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he concluded. “Whatever situation and any circumstance, we need to find a way, and we didn’t.”
