Little clicked for Josh Allen in a tough contest on Thursday evening versus the Texans.
Yet he came close to driving the Bills to a win before an interception in the last moments ended their hopes in a close loss.
Allen endured consecutive tackles for loss on the team's final possession, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (7-4) gained significant yardage on a quick throw from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
Following a false-start penalty led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, a Texans defender intercepted Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.
We possessed a chance to win it there at the end,” Josh Allen stated. “Our team performed a good job of staying in it and our defensive unit saved us a couple of times. We’ve got find a way, and we didn’t.”
It was tough for Allen to establish rhythm on a evening he was sacked a career-high eight times and hit four other times. Allen threw for 253 yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six touchdowns in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.
Whenever they pressure our quarterback 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott commented. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It is not a safe way to play and it’s not a good way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”
Josh Allen was slow to rise after a sack in the first half. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being contacted so many times during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I encountered a few myself. I’ve got to be more effective at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to lead the Texans. Another sack came when he nearly sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and Anderson rose and chased him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills played for a second straight game absent wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier held out for the first series of a loss to New England in Week 5 after additionally being late for a team session.
“Nothing new. We are taking it one day at a time,” McDermott said. “I thought he had a improved week, but we’re taking it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we opted for the players that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir led the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t make plays down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we must perform, and we didn’t do a good job of that this evening,” he concluded. “No matter the situation and any circumstance, we need to find a way, and we didn’t.”
