Little clicked for Josh Allen in a tough game on Thursday evening against the Texans.
And still he came close to driving the Bills to a win before an interception in the last moments ended their hopes in a close defeat.
Allen endured consecutive tackles for loss on the team's last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
After a false-start penalty led to a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off Allen’s pass at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds left.
“We had a opportunity to win it there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of hanging tough and our defensive unit saved us a few instances. We’ve got find a way, and we didn’t.”
It was tough for Allen to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a career-high eight times and hit four other times. The QB passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay last week.
“When they pressure our quarterback 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a smart way to keep our field general healthy for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was slow to get up after a sack in the first half. He said he was OK and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so many times on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple personally. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”
Allen lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half tackles for loss to top the Texans. His second one came when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and the defender rose and pursued him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt early in the third.
The Bills competed for a second straight game without wideout Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a squad gathering before their last game. He was earlier benched for the opening drive of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being delayed for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We are taking it day by day,” McDermott said. “I felt he had a better week, but we’re taking it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the players that provide the best chance.”
Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
The quarterback was disappointed that the team couldn’t execute in crucial moments.
In the end, we must execute, and we didn’t do a good job of that tonight,” he concluded. “Whatever situation and whatever circumstance, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
