Little clicked for Josh Allen in a frustrating contest Thursday night versus the Houston Texans.
Yet he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an interception in the final minute ended their hopes in a close defeat.
The quarterback endured back-to-back tackles for loss on the Bills’ final possession, resulting in a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
Following a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for Buffalo, a Texans defender intercepted the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.
“We had a opportunity to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen stated. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defensive unit saved us a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved difficult for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a night he was sacked a career-high eight times and pressured four additional instances. Allen threw for 253 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after producing six touchdowns in a victory over Tampa Bay last week.
Whenever they pressure our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It is not a healthy way to compete and it isn't a good way to keep our field general in good shape for the remaining games. We need to play better.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to rise after a sack in the first half. He indicated he was OK and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so many times on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I encountered a few myself. I’ve got to be better at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I was losing ground.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had two and a half tackles for loss to top the Houston defense. His second one came when he almost sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and the defender rose and chased him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo played for a second straight game absent receiver Keon Coleman after he was once more 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 the Patriots in the fifth week after also being delayed for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it day by day,” the coach said. “I thought he had a improved week, but we’re handling it step by step. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that provide the best chance.”
Shakir topped the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was disappointed that the Bills couldn’t execute in crucial moments.
In the end, we must execute, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever scenario and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to find a way, and we didn’t.”
