Little clicked for Josh Allen in a disappointing contest Thursday night 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 23-19 defeat.
The quarterback endured back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's last drive, leading to a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up significant yardage on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.
Following a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth down situation for the Bills, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.
“We had a chance to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Allen said. “We did a solid job of staying in it and our defense saved us a few instances. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved tough for Allen to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a career-high eight times and hit four additional instances. The QB threw for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and zero scores after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.
Whenever they hit our QB a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It is not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a good way to preserve our field general healthy for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to rise after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was OK and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being contacted so frequently during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I encountered a few personally. I’ve got to be better at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to lead the Texans. His second one occurred when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and the defender rose and chased him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills competed for a second straight game without receiver Keon Coleman after he was once more 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 loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after also being late for a team session.
“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it day by day,” the coach said. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the players that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir led the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a score.
The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t execute in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we must execute, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he concluded. “No matter the scenario and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to find a way, and we came up short.”
