Little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing contest Thursday night against the Houston Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to willing the Bills to a win before an interception in the last moments sealed their fate in a close defeat.
The quarterback took consecutive tackles for loss on the team's last drive, leading to a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (7-4) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate.
After a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for the Bills, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.
We possessed a chance to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen stated. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defense saved us a few instances. We must figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved difficult for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a evening he was sacked a career-high eight times and pressured four other times. Allen passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six touchdowns in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.
Whenever they pressure our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It is not a safe way to compete and it’s not a smart way to keep our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Allen was sluggish to rise after a sack in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was fine and that his 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 remarked. “I ran into a few myself. I need to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I found myself going backwards.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 tackles for loss to lead the Texans. Another sack occurred when he nearly took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and Anderson rose and pursued him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt early in the third.
Buffalo played for a second straight game without wideout Keon Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a squad gathering before their last game. He was earlier held out for the opening drive of a defeat to New England in Week 5 after also being late for a team session.
No change. We are approaching it day by day,” the coach noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the guys that provide the best chance.”
Shakir led the Bills with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was disappointed that the Bills were unable to execute down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and any circumstance, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
