Very little went right 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 victory before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a close loss.
The quarterback endured back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who flipped a lateral to another teammate.
After a pre-snap infraction created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's pass at the 9-yard line with under half a minute remaining.
“We had a opportunity to win it there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen said. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defense saved us a couple of times. We’ve got find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was tough for Allen to get anything going on a evening he was brought down a career-high eight times and hit four other times. The QB threw for 253 yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six touchdowns in a victory over Tampa Bay last week.
Whenever they pressure our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It is not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a smart way to preserve our field general healthy for the remaining games. We’ve got to play better.”
Josh Allen was slow to rise after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was fine and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being hit so frequently during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I encountered a couple personally. I need to be better at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”
Allen surrendered 70 yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to lead the Houston defense. Another sack occurred when he nearly took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and the defender got up and pursued him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt early in the third.
Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup absent receiver Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was late to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was previously benched for the opening drive of a defeat to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being late for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it one day at a time,” the coach noted. “I felt he had a better week, but we’re taking it step by step. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the players that give us the best chance.”
Shakir topped the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
Allen was disappointed that the Bills were unable to execute down the stretch.
In the end, we’ve got execute, and we didn’t do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever scenario and whatever condition, we’ve got to find a way, and we came up short.”
