Little clicked for Josh Allen in a disappointing contest on Thursday evening against the Texans.
And still he came close to willing the Bills to a win before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.
Allen took consecutive sacks on the Bills’ last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) gained significant yardage on a quick throw from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
Following a false-start penalty created a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with under half a minute remaining.
“We had a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “We did a solid job of hanging tough and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was difficult for Allen to establish rhythm on a night he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four other times. Allen passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.
Whenever they hit our quarterback 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it isn't a good way to preserve our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Allen was slow to rise after a tackle in the first half. He indicated he was fine and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being hit so many times during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I ran into a couple myself. I’ve got to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I was going backwards.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half sacks to lead the Texans. His second one occurred when he nearly took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and Anderson got up and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo competed for a second straight game absent wideout Keon Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was previously benched for the first series of a defeat to the Patriots in the fifth week after also being delayed for a team session.
No change. We are taking it day by day,” the coach said. “I thought he had a improved week, but we are taking it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the guys that give us the best chance.”
Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
Allen was frustrated that the Bills were unable to 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 any circumstance, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
