Little clicked for Josh Allen in a tough game Thursday night against the Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a close defeat.
The quarterback endured consecutive sacks on the Bills’ final possession, leading to a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (with seven wins) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who flipped a lateral to another teammate.
After a false-start penalty led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, a Texans defender intercepted the quarterback's throw at the 9-yard line with under half a minute remaining.
We possessed a chance to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Allen said. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defense saved us a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved difficult for Allen to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four other times. The QB threw for 253 yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over Tampa Bay last week.
“When they hit our quarterback 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It’s just not a safe way to compete and it’s not a good way to preserve our quarterback in good shape for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to rise after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was OK and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being hit so many times on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I encountered a few myself. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I was losing ground.”
Allen lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to lead the Texans. Another sack came when he almost sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and the defender rose and pursued him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was tardy to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was earlier benched for the first series of a defeat to the Patriots in the fifth week after also being delayed for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we’re taking it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the players that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t make plays in crucial moments.
In the end, we must execute, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he said. “Whatever situation and any condition, we need to find a way, and we didn’t.”
