Little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating game on Thursday evening against the Texans.
And still he came close to driving the Bills to a win before an late pick in the last moments sealed their fate in a 23-19 loss.
The quarterback endured back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) gained 44 yards on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth down situation for the Bills, Calen Bullock intercepted the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds remaining.
“We had a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen stated. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defensive unit bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was tough for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst eight times and hit four additional instances. Allen threw for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after accounting for six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay last week.
Whenever they pressure our quarterback 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach Sean McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It is not a healthy way to play and it’s not a good way to preserve our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was slow to rise after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was OK and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being contacted so frequently during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I ran into a few myself. I need to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I found myself losing ground.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Texans. His second one occurred when he almost sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and the defender rose and chased him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills competed for a second consecutive matchup absent receiver Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was earlier benched for the opening drive of a loss to New England in the fifth week after also being late for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We are taking it day by day,” the coach said. “I thought he had a better 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 guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a score.
The quarterback was disappointed that the team were unable to execute in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he said. “Whatever situation and whatever condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
