Very little went right for Josh Allen in a tough game on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.
And still he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a win before an interception in the last moments ended their hopes in a close loss.
The quarterback endured back-to-back tackles for loss on the Bills’ last drive, leading to a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (7-4) gained significant yardage on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
Following a false-start penalty led to a fourth down situation for the Bills, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's throw at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds left.
“We had a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen said. “We did a solid job of staying in it and our defensive unit saved us a few instances. We’ve got find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was tough for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a evening he was sacked a career-high on eight occasions and hit four other times. Allen threw for 253 yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after accounting for six touchdowns in a victory over the Buccaneers last week.
“When they pressure our quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott commented. “I don’t like that stat at all. It’s just not a safe way to play and it isn't a smart way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was slow to rise after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so frequently on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I encountered a few myself. I need to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I found myself going backwards.”
Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to lead the Texans. His second one occurred when he nearly sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and the defender got up and pursued him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt early in the third.
Buffalo played for a second consecutive matchup without receiver Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was late to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was previously benched for the opening drive of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after also being late for a meeting.
No change. We are taking it day by day,” the coach noted. “I thought he had a better week, but we’re handling it step by step. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Bills with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
Allen was frustrated that the team couldn’t execute down the stretch.
In the end, we’ve got perform, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever situation and whatever condition, we need to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
