Little clicked for Josh Allen in a tough contest on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.
Yet he came close to driving the Buffalo Bills to a win before an late pick in the final minute ended their hopes in a 23-19 loss.
Allen took back-to-back sacks on the team's last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.
Following a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with under half a minute remaining.
“We had a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of staying in it and our defense saved us a few instances. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was difficult for Allen to get anything going on a night he was brought down a personal-worst eight times and hit four additional instances. Allen threw for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after producing six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.
Whenever they pressure our quarterback 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach Sean McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it isn't a smart way to keep our field general in good shape for the remaining games. We’ve got to play better.”
Allen was sluggish to rise after a sack in the first half. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being hit so many times during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I encountered a few myself. I’ve got to be more effective at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I found myself losing ground.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 sacks to top the Texans. His second one occurred when he nearly sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson got up and chased him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt early in the third.
The Bills played for a second straight game absent receiver Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was earlier held out for the first series of a loss to New England in the fifth week after also being late for a team session.
“Nothing new. We are approaching it one day at a time,” the coach said. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the players that provide the best chance.”
Shakir topped the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
Allen was disappointed that the Bills couldn’t execute in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we’ve got perform, and we failed to do a good job of that this evening,” he concluded. “Whatever situation and whatever condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
