Little went right for Josh Allen in a frustrating contest on Thursday evening versus the Houston Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to willing the Bills to a victory before an late pick in the final minute sealed their fate in a close defeat.
The quarterback took consecutive sacks on the Bills’ final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
Following a pre-snap infraction created a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, a Texans defender intercepted Allen’s pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute remaining.
“We had a chance to come out on top there at the end,” Josh Allen stated. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defensive unit bailed us out a couple of times. We must figure it out, and we didn’t.”
It was tough for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a night he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four other times. Allen passed for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after accounting for six TDs in a win over Tampa Bay the previous week.
“When they hit our quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It is not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a good way to keep our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Allen was slow to rise after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was fine and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being hit so many times during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I ran into a few myself. I need to be more effective 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 lead the Texans. Another sack came when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson got up and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt early in the third.
The Bills competed for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a loss to New England in Week 5 after also being late for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We are approaching it day by day,” the coach noted. “I thought he had a improved week, but we are handling it step by step. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir led the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
Allen was frustrated that the team were unable to execute down the stretch.
In the end, we’ve got perform, and we didn’t do a good job of that this evening,” he concluded. “Whatever situation and any condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
