Very little went well for Josh Allen in a frustrating game Thursday night against the Texans.
And still he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a win before an interception in the last moments ended their hopes in a 23-19 loss.
Allen took back-to-back tackles for loss 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 a receiver, who tossed a lateral to another teammate.
After a false-start penalty led to a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.
We possessed a opportunity to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen said. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We must figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved difficult for the signal-caller to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a career-high eight times and hit four additional instances. Allen threw for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six touchdowns in a victory over the Buccaneers the previous week.
“When they hit our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It’s just not a healthy way to play and it’s not a smart way to keep our field general healthy for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”
Josh Allen was slow to get up after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He said he was fine and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so frequently on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I encountered a few personally. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself going backwards.”
Allen lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half tackles for loss to top the Texans. Another sack came when he nearly sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and the defender got up and chased him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo played for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was previously benched for the first series of a loss to the Patriots in the fifth week after additionally being delayed for a meeting.
No change. We are taking it one day at a time,” McDermott said. “I felt he had a better week, but we’re taking it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the players that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 yards and a score.
Allen was disappointed that the team were unable to execute down the stretch.
In the end, we’ve got perform, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever scenario and whatever condition, we need to find a way, and we didn’t.”
