Very little went well for Josh Allen in a frustrating game Thursday night versus the Texans.
Yet he came close to driving the Buffalo Bills to a win before an interception in the last moments ended their hopes in a 23-19 loss.
The quarterback took back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) gained significant yardage on a quick throw from Allen to a receiver, who flipped a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
After a pre-snap infraction created a fourth down situation for the Bills, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s pass at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds left.
“We had a opportunity to come out on top 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’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”
It was difficult for Allen to get anything going on a night he was brought down a career-high eight times and hit four other times. Allen threw for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and zero scores after accounting for six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.
Whenever they pressure our quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It is not a healthy way to play and it’s not a good way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We’ve got to play better.”
Allen was sluggish to rise after a sack in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was fine and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being hit so frequently on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple personally. I’ve got to be better at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I found myself going backwards.”
Allen lost 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to lead the Houston defense. His second one came when he nearly sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and the defender got up and pursued him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt early in the third.
Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup absent receiver Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their last game. He was previously held out for the first series of a defeat to New England in the fifth week after also being late for a team session.
“Nothing new. We’re just taking it one day at a time,” the coach noted. “I thought he had a improved week, but we are taking it one day at a time. It was not that it was ignored, but we went with the players that give us the best chance.”
Shakir topped the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
Allen was disappointed that the team couldn’t execute in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we didn’t do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “No matter the scenario and whatever circumstance, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
