Very little clicked for Josh Allen in a disappointing contest on Thursday evening versus the Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to driving the Buffalo Bills to a win before an interception in the final minute sealed their fate in a close loss.
Allen endured consecutive tackles for loss on the team's final possession, leading to a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) gained significant yardage 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-and-6 for Buffalo, a Texans defender intercepted Allen’s pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.
“We had a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen said. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defensive unit saved us a couple of times. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was tough for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a evening he was sacked a career-high on eight occasions and hit four other times. The QB threw for 253 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a victory over the Buccaneers last week.
Whenever they hit our QB a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It’s just not a safe way to play and it isn't a good way to preserve our field general in good shape for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”
Josh Allen was slow to get up after a sack in the first half. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being contacted so frequently on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a couple personally. I’ve got to be more effective at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I was going backwards.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 sacks to lead the Houston defense. His second one came when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and the defender got up and chased him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt early in the third.
Buffalo played for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was previously benched for the opening drive of a defeat to the Patriots in the fifth week after additionally being delayed for a team session.
“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it day by day,” McDermott said. “I thought he had a better week, but we are taking it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the guys that provide the best chance.”
Shakir led the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
Allen was disappointed that the Bills couldn’t execute down the stretch.
In the end, we’ve got perform, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he said. “Whatever situation and whatever condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
