Very little went well for Josh Allen in a tough contest on Thursday evening against the Texans.
And still he came close to driving the Bills to a victory before an interception in the final minute sealed their fate in a close defeat.
Allen took consecutive sacks on the team's final possession, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
After a false-start penalty created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, a Texans defender intercepted the quarterback's throw at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.
“We had a opportunity to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen said. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defensive unit bailed us out a couple of times. We must find a way, and we didn’t.”
It was difficult for the signal-caller to get anything going on a evening he was brought down a personal-worst on eight occasions and pressured four other times. The QB passed for 253 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay last week.
Whenever they pressure our quarterback 12 times, I don’t like that,” 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 smart way to keep our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We’ve got to play better.”
Allen was sluggish to rise after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was OK and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being contacted so many times during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I encountered a couple myself. I’ve got to be more effective at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I found myself going backwards.”
Allen lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half tackles for loss to top the Texans. Another sack occurred when he nearly sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and the defender rose and pursued him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills competed for a second consecutive matchup absent wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was late to a squad gathering before their last game. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a defeat to the Patriots in the fifth week after also being late for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We are approaching it one day at a time,” the coach noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we’re handling it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the players that give us the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a score.
The quarterback was disappointed that the Bills were unable to execute down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we must perform, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and whatever circumstance, we need to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
