Little clicked for Josh Allen in a disappointing game Thursday night against the Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to driving the Buffalo Bills to a win before an late pick in the last moments sealed their fate in a 23-19 defeat.
Allen endured consecutive tackles for loss on the Bills’ last drive, leading to a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (with seven wins) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
Following a false-start penalty led to a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's throw at the 9-yard line with under half a minute left.
“We had a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen said. “We did a solid job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out a couple of times. We’ve got find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved tough for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a night he was sacked a career-high eight times and hit four other times. Allen passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and zero scores after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over Tampa Bay the previous week.
Whenever they pressure our quarterback 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it isn't a smart way to preserve our quarterback in good shape for the rest of the season. We’ve got to play better.”
Josh Allen was slow to get up after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was OK and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so many times during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple personally. I’ve got to be better 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 two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Houston defense. Another sack came when he nearly sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and the defender got up and pursued him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills competed for a second straight game absent wideout Keon Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was previously held out for the first series of a defeat to New England in Week 5 after also being delayed for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We’re just taking it day by day,” McDermott said. “I thought he had a improved week, but we are taking it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that give us the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir led the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills were unable to execute down the stretch.
In the end, we must execute, and we failed to succeed of that tonight,” he said. “No matter the scenario and whatever condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
