Very little went right for Josh Allen in a frustrating game on Thursday evening versus the Houston Texans.
And still he nearly managed to driving the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an interception in the final minute ended their hopes in a close defeat.
The quarterback took consecutive sacks on the team's last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a lateral to another teammate.
After a false-start penalty created a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute remaining.
We possessed a chance to win it there at the end,” Allen said. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We must figure it out, and we didn’t.”
Proved difficult for Allen to establish rhythm on a evening he was sacked a career-high eight times and hit four additional instances. Allen threw for 253 yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers last week.
“When they hit our quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It is not a safe way to compete and it isn't a good way to keep our field general in good shape for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”
Allen was sluggish to get up after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was fine and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so frequently on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a few personally. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself going backwards.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Texans. Another sack occurred when he nearly sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and the defender rose and pursued him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills competed for a second straight game without wideout Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier benched for the opening drive of a defeat to New England in the fifth week after also being late for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We are taking it one day at a time,” the coach noted. “I thought he had a improved week, but we’re taking it step by step. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the guys that provide the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
Allen was disappointed that the Bills couldn’t make plays down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we’ve got perform, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he concluded. “Whatever situation and any circumstance, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
