Very little went right for Josh Allen in a tough game Thursday night against the Houston Texans.
Yet he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a win before an late pick in the final minute sealed their fate in a 23-19 loss.
The quarterback endured back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ last drive, leading to a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.
Following a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for the Bills, Calen Bullock picked off Allen’s throw at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds remaining.
We possessed a chance to come out on top there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We must figure it out, and we didn’t.”
Proved tough for the signal-caller to get anything going on a night he was brought down a personal-worst eight times and hit four additional instances. Allen passed for 253 yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six touchdowns in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.
“When they pressure our quarterback 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott commented. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It is not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a good way to preserve our field general in good shape for the rest of the season. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to rise after a tackle in the first half. He said he was OK and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being contacted so many times during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I encountered a few personally. I’ve got to be more effective at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I found myself going backwards.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to top the Houston defense. Another sack occurred when he nearly sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson got up and chased him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills competed for a second straight game absent wideout Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their last game. He was previously benched for the first series of a loss to the Patriots in the fifth week after additionally being late for a meeting.
No change. We’re just taking it day by day,” the coach said. “I thought he had a better week, but we are handling it step by step. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the players that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills were unable to make plays down the stretch.
In the end, we’ve got execute, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he said. “No matter the situation and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to find a way, and we came up short.”
