Little clicked for Josh Allen in a tough game Thursday night versus the Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to driving the Buffalo Bills to a win before an interception in the final minute sealed their fate in a close defeat.
The quarterback took back-to-back tackles for loss on the Bills’ final possession, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
Following a false-start penalty led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, a Texans defender picked off Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.
We possessed a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Allen said. “Our team performed a solid job of hanging tough and our defensive unit saved us a couple of times. We’ve got find a way, and we didn’t.”
Proved difficult for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a night he was brought down a personal-worst eight times and hit four other times. Allen passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and zero scores after accounting for six TDs in a win over Tampa Bay last week.
“When they hit our QB a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach Sean McDermott commented. “I don’t like that stat at all. It is not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a good way to preserve our field general in good shape for the rest of the season. We need to improve our performance.”
Allen was slow to get up after a tackle in the first half. He indicated he was fine and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being hit so many times during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I ran into a few personally. I need to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I found myself losing ground.”
Allen lost 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to lead the Texans. His second one occurred when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and the defender rose and pursued him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt early in the third.
Buffalo competed for a second straight game absent receiver Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was earlier held out for the opening drive of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being late for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We are taking it one day at a time,” McDermott noted. “I thought 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 players that give us the best chance.”
Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 yards and Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
Allen was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t make plays in crucial moments.
In the end, we must perform, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and any condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
