Little went well for Josh Allen in a tough contest on Thursday evening versus the Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to driving the Bills to a victory before an interception in the final minute ended their hopes in a close loss.
Allen took consecutive tackles for loss on the team's last drive, leading to a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a lateral to another teammate.
After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute remaining.
“We had a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen said. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defensive unit bailed us out a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”
It was tough for Allen to get anything going on a night he was sacked a career-high on eight occasions and hit four additional instances. Allen threw for 253 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over Tampa Bay the previous week.
“When they hit our QB a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach McDermott commented. “I don’t like that stat at all. It is not a safe way to play and it isn't a good way to keep our field general healthy for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”
Allen was sluggish to rise after a tackle in the first half. He indicated he was fine and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being hit so many times during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I ran into a few myself. I need to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself going backwards.”
Allen lost 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to top the Texans. Another sack came when he nearly sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and the defender rose and pursued 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 straight game without receiver Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was earlier benched for the first series of a defeat to New England in the fifth week after additionally being late for a team session.
“Nothing new. We are approaching it day by day,” McDermott said. “I thought he had a better week, but we are taking 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 optimal opportunity.”
Shakir led the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills were unable to execute in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we’ve got perform, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he concluded. “No matter the situation and any condition, we need to find a way, and we didn’t.”
