Very little clicked for Josh Allen in a frustrating game on Thursday evening against the Texans.
Yet he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a win before an late pick in the last moments sealed their fate in a close loss.
The quarterback endured back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's last drive, leading to a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a quick throw from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.
Following a false-start penalty led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds remaining.
“We had a chance to win it there at the end,” Josh Allen stated. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defensive unit bailed us out a few instances. We must find a way, and we didn’t.”
It was difficult for Allen to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a career-high on eight occasions and pressured four other times. Allen threw for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.
Whenever they pressure our quarterback a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It is not a safe way to compete and it’s not a good way to preserve our quarterback in good shape for the rest of the season. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Allen was sluggish to get up after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so frequently on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I ran into a few myself. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I was going backwards.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Texans. His second one came when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and the defender got up and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt early in the third.
The Bills played for a second straight game absent wideout Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier held out for the first series of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being late for a team session.
“Nothing new. We are approaching it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a better week, but we’re handling it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was disappointed that the Bills couldn’t make plays in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we’ve got perform, and we failed to succeed of that tonight,” he said. “No matter the scenario and any condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
