Very little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating contest on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to driving the Bills to a win before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a close defeat.
The quarterback endured consecutive sacks on the team's last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (with seven wins) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate.
After a false-start penalty created a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off Allen’s pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute remaining.
“We had a chance to win it there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “We did a solid job of hanging tough and our defense saved us a couple of times. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was tough for the signal-caller to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a career-high on eight occasions and hit four additional instances. The QB threw for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after accounting for six touchdowns in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.
“When they hit our QB 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach Sean McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It’s just not a safe way to play and it’s not a smart way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”
Josh Allen was slow to rise after a sack in the first half. He indicated he was OK and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so many times on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I encountered a few myself. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I found myself going backwards.”
Allen surrendered 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Texans. Another sack came when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and Anderson rose and chased him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt early in the third.
The Bills played for a second consecutive matchup absent wideout Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was earlier held out for the first series of a defeat to New England in Week 5 after additionally being late for a meeting.
No change. We’re just taking it day by day,” the coach noted. “I thought he had a improved week, but we are handling it step by step. It was not that it was ignored, but we opted for the players that give us the best chance.”
Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was disappointed that the Bills couldn’t execute in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and any circumstance, we need to find a way, and we didn’t.”
