Little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing contest Thursday night against the Texans.
And still he came close to driving the Buffalo Bills to a win before an interception in the last moments ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.
The quarterback endured back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's final possession, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate.
Following a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth down situation for the Bills, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s pass at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds remaining.
We possessed a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen said. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defense saved us a couple of times. We must figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved tough for Allen to establish rhythm on a night he was sacked a career-high on eight occasions and pressured four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six touchdowns in a victory over Tampa Bay last week.
Whenever they hit our quarterback 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It’s just not a safe way to compete and it’s not a smart way to keep our field general in good shape for the rest of the season. We need to improve our performance.”
Allen was slow to get up after a tackle in the first half. He said he was OK and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being hit so frequently on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple myself. I need to be more effective at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself going backwards.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to top the Houston defense. Another sack occurred when he nearly sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and Anderson got up and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt early in the third.
Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup without receiver Keon Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their last game. He was earlier benched for the opening drive of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being delayed for a team session.
“Nothing new. We are taking it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a better week, but we are handling it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the players that give us the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
Allen was frustrated that the team couldn’t make plays down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we failed to succeed of that tonight,” he concluded. “No matter the situation and any condition, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
