Little went well for Josh Allen in a disappointing game Thursday night against the Houston Texans.
Yet he came close to willing the Bills to a win before an interception in the final minute ended their hopes in a close loss.
The quarterback endured back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up 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 created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, a Texans defender intercepted the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds remaining.
“We had a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was difficult for the signal-caller to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and pressured four additional instances. The QB threw for 253 yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six TDs in a victory over the Buccaneers the previous week.
“When they pressure our quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a good way to keep our field general in good shape for the remaining games. We’ve got to play better.”
Allen was sluggish to rise after a sack in the first half. He said he was OK and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being hit so many times on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I ran into a few myself. I need to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I found myself losing ground.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to top the Houston defense. Another sack occurred when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and the defender rose and pursued 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 straight game absent receiver Keon Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a loss to the Patriots in the fifth week after additionally being late for a team session.
No change. We are taking it day by day,” the coach noted. “I thought he had a improved week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that provide the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was disappointed that the Bills couldn’t execute in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we must perform, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he said. “Whatever scenario and any condition, we need to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
