Little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a tough game Thursday night versus the Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to driving the Bills to a victory before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.
The quarterback endured back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ final possession, resulting in a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) gained significant yardage on a quick throw from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
Following a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off Allen’s pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute remaining.
We possessed a chance to come out on top there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defense saved us a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved difficult for Allen to establish rhythm on a night he was sacked a career-high eight times and hit four other times. The QB passed for 253 yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.
Whenever they hit our quarterback a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It’s just not a safe way to compete and it isn't a smart way to preserve our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to get up after a tackle in the first half. He said he was fine and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being contacted so frequently during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I encountered a few personally. I’ve got to be better at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself going backwards.”
Allen lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to lead the Houston defense. His second one came when he almost sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and Anderson got up and pursued him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt early in the third.
Buffalo played for a second straight game without receiver Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was earlier benched for the opening drive of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after also being delayed for a team session.
No change. We’re just approaching it day by day,” the coach said. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are taking it one day at a time. It was not that it was ignored, but we went with the players that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a score.
Allen was frustrated that the team couldn’t make plays in crucial moments.
In the end, we must execute, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he concluded. “No matter the situation and any condition, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”
