Little clicked for Josh Allen in a disappointing contest Thursday night versus the Texans.
Yet he came close to driving the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an interception in the last moments sealed their fate in a 23-19 loss.
Allen took consecutive tackles for loss on the Bills’ last drive, leading to a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
After a false-start penalty led to a fourth down situation for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's throw at the 9-yard line with under half a minute left.
We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the end,” Allen said. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defense saved us a few instances. We must find a way, and we didn’t.”
It was tough for the signal-caller to get anything going on a night he was brought down a career-high eight times and pressured four additional instances. Allen threw for 253 yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six touchdowns in a win over the Buccaneers last week.
“When they hit our QB a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It is not a healthy way to play and it’s not a smart way to keep our field general in good shape for the rest of the season. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Josh 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 fell on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so frequently on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I ran into a few personally. I’ve got to be better at disposing of the football. Too many times, I was losing ground.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to lead the Houston defense. Another sack occurred when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson rose and chased him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt early in the third.
The Bills played for a second consecutive matchup absent receiver Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was earlier benched for the first series of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after also being late for a team session.
“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it day by day,” the coach said. “I felt he had a improved week, but we’re handling it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we opted for the players that provide the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Bills with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 yards and a score.
Allen was disappointed that the team couldn’t execute in crucial moments.
In the end, we must execute, and we didn’t do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever situation and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to find a way, and we came up short.”
