Little clicked for Josh Allen in a disappointing contest on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.
And still he nearly managed to driving the Buffalo Bills to a win before an interception in the final minute ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.
The quarterback took consecutive tackles for loss on the team's last drive, resulting in a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's pass at the 9-yard line with under half a minute remaining.
We possessed a chance to win it there at the end,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defensive unit saved us a few instances. We’ve got find a way, and we didn’t.”
It was difficult for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a career-high eight times and pressured four other times. The QB threw for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after producing six touchdowns in a victory over the Buccaneers last week.
“When they hit our quarterback 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach Sean McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It’s just not a safe way to play and it’s not a good way to keep our field general in good shape for the rest of the season. We’ve got to play better.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to get up after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was OK and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being hit so frequently on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple personally. I need to be more effective at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”
Allen surrendered 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to lead the Texans. Another sack occurred when he almost sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and the defender got up and chased him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo competed for a second straight game without receiver Coleman after he was once more 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.
No change. We’re just taking it day by day,” the coach noted. “I felt he had a better week, but we’re handling it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we opted for the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir led the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 yards and Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t make plays down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we must execute, and we failed to do a good job of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the scenario and any condition, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
