Little clicked for Josh Allen in a tough contest Thursday night versus the Houston Texans.
And still he came close to willing the Bills to a victory before an interception in the last moments ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.
Allen endured back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) gained significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
Following a false-start penalty led to a fourth down situation for the Bills, a Texans defender intercepted the quarterback's throw at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.
“We had a opportunity to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen said. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defensive unit bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was tough for Allen to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst eight times and pressured four additional instances. Allen passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.
Whenever they hit our QB a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It is not a safe way to play and it’s not a smart way to keep our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to get up after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was fine and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being hit so frequently on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I encountered a few myself. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I found myself losing ground.”
Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 tackles for loss to lead the Texans. Another sack occurred when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and the defender rose and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt early in the third.
The Bills played for a second straight game absent receiver Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a defeat to the Patriots in the fifth week after additionally being delayed for a meeting.
No change. We’re just taking it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I thought he had a improved week, but we’re taking it step by step. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir led the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t make plays down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we failed to succeed of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever situation and whatever condition, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”
