Very little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a tough contest Thursday night against the Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to willing the Buffalo Bills to a win before an interception in the last moments ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.
The quarterback took back-to-back sacks on the team's last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate.
Following a false-start penalty created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute remaining.
We possessed a chance to come out on top there at the end,” Josh Allen stated. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defense saved us a couple of times. We must figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was difficult for the signal-caller to get anything going on a night he was sacked a personal-worst eight times and pressured four additional instances. The QB threw for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six TDs in a victory over the Buccaneers last week.
Whenever they pressure our quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach Sean McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It’s just not a safe way to compete and it isn't a good way to keep our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We’ve got to play better.”
Allen was sluggish to get up after a tackle in the first half. He said he was OK and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being contacted so frequently on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I ran into a couple myself. I’ve got to be better at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself going backwards.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had two and a half tackles for loss to top the Houston defense. Another sack occurred when he almost sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and the defender got up and pursued him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt early in the third.
The Bills competed 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 benched for the opening drive of a loss 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 said. “I thought he had a better week, but we are handling it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the players that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t make plays in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we’ve got perform, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the scenario and any condition, we’ve got to find a way, and we came up short.”
