Very little clicked for Josh Allen in a frustrating game on Thursday evening against the Texans.
Yet he came close to driving the Bills to a win before an late pick in the final minute sealed their fate in a 23-19 loss.
The quarterback took back-to-back sacks on the team's last drive, leading to a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's pass at the 9-yard line with under half a minute left.
“We had a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of hanging tough and our defensive unit saved us a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”
It was difficult for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a night he was brought down a personal-worst on eight occasions and pressured four additional instances. The QB threw for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay last week.
“When they hit our quarterback 12 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 smart way to preserve our field general healthy for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”
Allen was slow to get up after a sack in the first half. He indicated he was fine and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being contacted so many times on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “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.”
Allen surrendered 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to top the Houston defense. Another sack came when he nearly took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and the defender 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 straight game without receiver Keon Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was earlier benched for the opening drive of a defeat to New England in Week 5 after additionally being delayed for a meeting.
No change. We’re just approaching it one day at a time,” the coach said. “I thought 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 give us the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Bills with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
Allen was disappointed that the team were unable to execute in crucial moments.
In the end, we must perform, and we failed to do a good job of that this evening,” he concluded. “Whatever situation and any circumstance, we need to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
