Little clicked 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 win before an interception in the last moments ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.
Allen endured back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
After a pre-snap infraction created a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with under half a minute remaining.
We possessed a opportunity to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “We did a solid job of staying in it and our defensive unit bailed us out a few instances. We must figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was difficult for Allen to get anything going on a night he was sacked a personal-worst eight times and pressured four additional instances. The QB threw for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a win over Tampa Bay last week.
“When they pressure our quarterback 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a good way to keep our field general healthy for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was slow to get up after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was OK and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being contacted so frequently during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I encountered a couple personally. I need to be better at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”
Allen lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 sacks to top the Texans. Another sack came when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and the defender got up and pursued him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt early in the third.
The Bills competed for a second consecutive matchup without receiver Keon Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a loss to the Patriots in the fifth week after also being late for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We are approaching it day by day,” McDermott said. “I thought he had a improved week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It was not that it was ignored, but we opted for the guys that provide the best chance.”
Shakir topped the Bills with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t make plays down the stretch.
In the end, we must execute, and we didn’t do a good job of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the situation and any condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
