Little clicked for Josh Allen in a frustrating game Thursday night versus the Houston Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to willing the Bills to a win before an interception in the final minute ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.
The quarterback took back-to-back tackles for loss on the Bills’ last drive, leading to a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) gained significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
Following a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for Buffalo, a Texans defender picked off Allen’s throw at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds remaining.
We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the end,” Allen said. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defense saved us a couple of times. We must figure it out, and we didn’t.”
It was tough for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a night he was brought down a career-high eight times and hit four additional instances. Allen threw for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over Tampa Bay last week.
Whenever they hit 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 healthy way to compete and it’s not a smart way to preserve our quarterback in good shape for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”
Allen was slow to rise after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was fine and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so many times during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a few personally. I’ve got to be more effective at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I was going backwards.”
Allen surrendered 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half tackles for loss to top the Texans. Another sack occurred when he nearly sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson got up and chased him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt early in the third.
The Bills competed for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their last game. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a defeat to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being late for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We’re just taking it one day at a time,” McDermott noted. “I thought he had a better week, but we are handling it step by step. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
Allen was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t execute down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever scenario and any circumstance, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
