Little clicked for Josh Allen in a disappointing contest Thursday night against the Houston Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an interception in the last moments ended their hopes in a close loss.
Allen took consecutive sacks on the team's last drive, resulting in a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) gained significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
After a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for Buffalo, a Texans defender intercepted Allen’s pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.
We possessed a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a good job of hanging tough and our defensive unit bailed us out a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was difficult for Allen to establish rhythm on a night he was brought down a personal-worst on eight occasions and pressured four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after producing six touchdowns in a win over Tampa Bay last week.
“When they hit our quarterback 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach Sean McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It’s just not a healthy way to play and it’s not a smart way to keep our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We need to play better.”
Allen was sluggish 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 contacted so frequently on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I encountered a couple personally. I’ve got to be more effective at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I was going backwards.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Houston defense. Another sack came when he nearly sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and Anderson rose and pursued him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills played for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was earlier benched for the opening drive of a defeat to the Patriots in Week 5 after also being delayed for a team session.
No change. We are taking it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we’re taking it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a score.
Allen was disappointed that the Bills were unable to make plays in crucial moments.
In the end, we must perform, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever scenario and any circumstance, we’ve got to find a way, and we didn’t.”
