Little went well for Josh Allen in a frustrating contest Thursday night versus the Houston Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to driving the Bills to a victory before an interception in the last moments sealed their fate in a 23-19 loss.
The quarterback took back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) gained significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
After a false-start penalty led to a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off Allen’s pass at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds left.
“We had a opportunity to win it there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen said. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defensive unit saved us a couple of times. We’ve got find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved difficult for the signal-caller to get anything going on a night he was sacked a career-high eight times and hit four additional instances. Allen passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a win over Tampa Bay last week.
“When they pressure our QB 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It’s just not a safe way to compete and it’s not a good way to preserve our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We need to play better.”
Allen was slow to get up after a sack in the first half. He indicated he was OK and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so many times during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I encountered a few myself. I need to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I was losing ground.”
Allen surrendered 70 yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to lead the Texans. Another sack occurred when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and the defender rose and chased him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup without receiver Keon Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their last game. He was previously held out for the first series of a defeat to the Patriots in the fifth week after additionally being delayed for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We are approaching it day by day,” McDermott said. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that give us the best chance.”
Shakir led the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
Allen was frustrated that the team were unable to execute down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we didn’t do a good job of that this evening,” he concluded. “No matter the scenario and whatever condition, we need to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
