Very little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a tough game Thursday night versus the Houston Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to willing the 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 Bills’ final possession, leading to a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
After a false-start penalty led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.
We possessed a chance to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Allen said. “Our team performed a solid job of hanging tough and our defense saved us a couple of times. We’ve got find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was difficult for Allen to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a personal-worst eight times and hit four other times. Allen passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six touchdowns in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.
Whenever they pressure our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott commented. “I don’t like that stat at all. It’s just not a healthy way to play and it’s not a good way to keep our quarterback in good shape for the rest of the season. We need to improve our performance.”
Allen was slow to get up after a tackle in the first half. He said he was OK and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being contacted so many times on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I ran into a couple personally. I’ve got to be more effective at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself going backwards.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to top the Houston defense. His second one occurred when he nearly sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and the defender rose and chased him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt early in the third.
Buffalo played for a second consecutive matchup absent wideout Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was previously benched for the first series of a defeat to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being late for a team session.
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 one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir led the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a score.
Allen was disappointed that the Bills were unable to make plays in crucial moments.
In the end, we must execute, and we failed to succeed of that tonight,” he said. “No matter the scenario and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to find a way, and we didn’t.”
