Little went right for Josh Allen in a disappointing game on Thursday evening against the Texans.
And still he nearly managed to driving the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an interception in the final minute ended their hopes in a close defeat.
The quarterback took consecutive tackles for loss on the team's last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up significant yardage on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
After a false-start penalty created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off Allen’s throw at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds remaining.
“We had a opportunity to win it there at the end,” Josh Allen stated. “We did a solid job of hanging tough and our defense bailed us out a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”
It was tough for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a night he was brought down a career-high on eight occasions and pressured four other times. Allen passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six TDs in a victory over the Buccaneers last week.
Whenever they hit our quarterback a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It is not a safe way to play and it isn't a good way to preserve our field general healthy for the rest of the season. We need to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was slow to rise after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was OK and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being contacted so many times on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple myself. I need 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. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 sacks to top the Texans. His second one came when he nearly sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and the defender got up and chased him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo played for a second straight game without wideout Keon Coleman after he was again 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 Week 5 after additionally being late for a team session.
No change. We’re just taking it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the guys that provide the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was disappointed that the team were unable to execute in crucial moments.
In the end, we must execute, and we failed to succeed of that tonight,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to find a way, and we didn’t.”
