Very little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating contest on Thursday evening versus the Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to willing the Bills to a victory before an interception in the last moments ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.
The quarterback took consecutive tackles for loss on the Bills’ final possession, resulting in a long fourth down, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to a receiver, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
After a pre-snap infraction created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, a Texans defender intercepted Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.
“We had a opportunity to win it there at the end,” Josh Allen stated. “We did a solid job of hanging tough and our defensive unit bailed us out a few instances. We must figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved tough for Allen to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers last week.
Whenever they hit our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott said. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It’s just not a safe way to compete and it isn't a good way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”
Allen was sluggish to get up after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was OK and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so many times on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I encountered a few personally. I’ve got to be better at disposing of the football. Too many times, I was going backwards.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to lead the Houston defense. His second one came when he nearly sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and the defender got up and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt early in the third.
The Bills played for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier benched for the first series of a loss to New England in the fifth week after additionally being late for a team session.
“Nothing new. We are taking it one day at a time,” the coach said. “I felt he had a improved week, but we’re taking it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that give us the best chance.”
Shakir topped the Bills with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
The quarterback was disappointed that the Bills couldn’t execute in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we didn’t do a good job of that this evening,” he concluded. “No matter the scenario and any circumstance, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
