Little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a tough contest on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an interception in the final minute ended their hopes in a close defeat.
Allen took 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 quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
After a false-start penalty led to a fourth down situation for the Bills, Calen Bullock picked off Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.
“We had a chance to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “We did a solid job of staying in it and our defense saved us a few instances. We must find a way, and we didn’t.”
It was tough for Allen to get anything going on a night he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four other times. Allen passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after producing six touchdowns in a victory over the Buccaneers last week.
Whenever they hit our QB 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott commented. “I don’t like that stat at all. It’s just not a safe way to play and it’s not a smart way to preserve our quarterback in good shape for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”
Josh Allen was slow to get up after a tackle in the first half. He indicated he was fine and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was asked about being contacted so frequently on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I encountered a couple 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 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Texans. His second one came when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and the defender rose and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo played for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was late to a squad gathering before their previous contest. 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 said. “I felt he had a better week, but we are taking it step by step. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that provide the best chance.”
Shakir led the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
The quarterback was frustrated that the team couldn’t execute down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we must perform, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he said. “Whatever situation and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
