Very little went well for Josh Allen in a disappointing game Thursday night against the Texans.
And still he nearly managed to driving the Bills to a win before an interception in the final minute sealed their fate in a close defeat.
Allen endured consecutive sacks on the team's final possession, leading to a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (7-4) gained 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate.
Following a false-start penalty led to a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's throw at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds remaining.
“We had a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen said. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defense saved us a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was difficult for Allen to get anything going on a evening he was brought down a personal-worst on eight occasions and pressured four other times. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a victory over the Buccaneers the previous week.
Whenever they pressure our quarterback 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It’s just not a safe way to play and it isn't a good way to preserve our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”
Allen was slow to rise after a tackle in the first half. He said he was OK and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so many times during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a few myself. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. 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 Texans. His second one occurred when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson got up and chased him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt early in the third.
Buffalo played for a second consecutive matchup absent receiver Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their last game. He was previously benched for the opening drive of a defeat to New England in the fifth week after also being delayed for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We’re just taking it day by day,” the coach noted. “I thought he had a improved week, but we’re taking it step by step. It was not that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that give us the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir led the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
The quarterback was disappointed that the team couldn’t make plays down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we must perform, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he concluded. “No matter the scenario and any circumstance, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
