Little clicked for Josh Allen in a tough contest on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.
Yet he came close to driving the Buffalo Bills to a win before an late pick in the last moments sealed their fate in a 23-19 loss.
Allen endured consecutive tackles for loss on the team's last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (7-4) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to a receiver, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate.
After a false-start penalty led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute remaining.
We possessed a opportunity to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defense saved us a few instances. We must figure it out, and we didn’t.”
Proved tough for Allen to get anything going on a night he was brought down a career-high eight times and pressured four additional instances. The QB threw for 253 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over Tampa Bay last week.
“When they pressure our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It is not a safe way to play and it’s not a good way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We need to improve our performance.”
Allen was slow to rise after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was OK and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being contacted so many times during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I ran into a couple myself. I’ve got to be more effective at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I was losing ground.”
Allen lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to lead the Houston defense. Another sack came when he nearly sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson got up and pursued him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt early in the third.
Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup absent receiver Keon Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was late to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was earlier benched for the first series of a loss to New England in the fifth week after also being late for a team session.
“Nothing new. We are approaching it day by day,” 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 was ignored, but we went with the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir led the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a score.
Allen was disappointed that the Bills were unable to make plays down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the situation and any circumstance, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
