Very little went well for Josh Allen in a frustrating game Thursday night versus the Texans.
And still he came close to willing the Bills to a win before an interception in the final minute sealed their fate in a close defeat.
Allen endured consecutive sacks on the Bills’ final possession, resulting in a long fourth down, but Buffalo (with seven wins) gained significant yardage on a short pass from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
Following a false-start penalty led to a fourth down situation for the Bills, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.
We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defensive unit saved us a couple of times. We must figure it out, and we didn’t.”
Proved difficult for Allen to establish rhythm on a night he was brought down a career-high on eight occasions and pressured four other times. Allen threw for 253 yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six touchdowns in a victory over Tampa Bay last week.
“When they hit our quarterback 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It is not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a good way to keep our quarterback in good shape for the rest of the season. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to rise after a tackle in the first half. He said he was OK and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being contacted so frequently on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple personally. I’ve got to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to top the Texans. Another sack occurred when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and the defender rose and pursued him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt early in the third.
The Bills played for a second straight game without receiver Keon Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier held out for the first series of a defeat to New England in Week 5 after also being late for a meeting.
No change. We’re just approaching it one day at a time,” McDermott said. “I felt he had a better week, but we are taking it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a score.
The quarterback was disappointed that the Bills were unable to make plays down the stretch.
In the end, we must perform, and we failed to do a good job of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the scenario and whatever condition, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
