Little went well for Josh Allen in a frustrating game Thursday night versus the Houston Texans.
And still he nearly managed to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an interception in the last moments ended their hopes in a 23-19 loss.
Allen took consecutive sacks on the team's final possession, leading to a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
After a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.
We possessed a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defense saved us a couple of times. We must find a way, and we didn’t.”
It was tough for the signal-caller to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst eight times and hit four additional instances. Allen threw for 253 yards with two interceptions and zero scores after accounting for six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers last week.
“When they hit our QB a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It is not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a smart way to keep our field general healthy for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was slow to rise after a sack in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was OK and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being contacted so many times during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I encountered a couple myself. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I was going backwards.”
Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to top the Houston defense. Another sack occurred when he almost sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and Anderson rose and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills competed for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was previously benched for the first series of a loss to New England in the fifth week after additionally being late for a team session.
No change. We’re just taking it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a better week, but we are handling it step by step. It was not that it was ignored, but we opted for the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
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 succeed of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the scenario and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to find a way, and we came up short.”
