Very little went well for Josh Allen in a tough contest Thursday night versus the Texans.
And still he came close to driving the Bills to a victory before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a close defeat.
The quarterback endured consecutive sacks on the team's last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
Following a pre-snap infraction created a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, a Texans defender intercepted Allen’s throw at the 9-yard line with under half a minute remaining.
We possessed a chance to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defensive unit bailed us out a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”
Proved tough 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 passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six touchdowns in a victory over the Buccaneers last week.
“When they hit our quarterback 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach Sean McDermott commented. “I don’t like that stat at all. It is not a healthy way to play and it isn't a smart way to keep our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We need to play better.”
Allen was sluggish to rise 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 questioned about being contacted so frequently during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a couple personally. I need to be more effective at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I was losing ground.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had two and a half sacks to lead the Texans. His second one occurred when he nearly took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and the defender got up and pursued him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt early in the third.
Buffalo competed for a second straight game without receiver Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was earlier held out for the first series of a loss to New England in Week 5 after also being late for a meeting.
No change. We’re just approaching it day by day,” McDermott said. “I felt he had a better week, but we’re handling it one day at a time. It was not that it was ignored, but we opted for the players that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a score.
The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t make plays in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we must execute, and we failed to do a good job of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the situation and any circumstance, we need to find a way, and we didn’t.”
