Very little went well for Josh Allen in a disappointing game on Thursday evening versus the Houston Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to driving the Bills to a victory before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a 23-19 loss.
The quarterback took back-to-back sacks on the team's last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
After a false-start penalty created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted the quarterback's pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds remaining.
We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the end,” Allen said. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defense saved us a couple of times. We must find a way, and we didn’t.”
It was tough for Allen to establish rhythm on a night he was sacked a career-high eight times and hit four additional instances. Allen passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and zero scores after accounting for six TDs in a win over Tampa Bay the previous week.
“When they hit our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott commented. “I don’t like 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 improve our performance.”
Allen was sluggish to rise after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was OK and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being contacted so frequently on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I ran into a couple personally. I’ve got to be more effective at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I was going backwards.”
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 came when he almost sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and the defender rose and pursued him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt early in the third.
Buffalo played for a second straight game absent receiver Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was previously benched for the first series of a loss to the Patriots in the fifth week after also being late for a team session.
No change. We are taking it one day at a time,” McDermott noted. “I thought he had a better week, but we’re handling it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that give us the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 yards and Cook had 116 yards and a score.
Allen was frustrated that the team couldn’t execute down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we must execute, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the situation and whatever condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
