Little clicked for Josh Allen in a disappointing contest on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.
Yet he came close to driving the Bills to a victory before an late pick in the last moments sealed their fate in a 23-19 loss.
The quarterback took consecutive tackles for loss on the team's last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) gained significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.
After a pre-snap infraction created a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's throw at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.
We possessed a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”
It was difficult for Allen to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst eight times and hit four additional instances. The QB threw for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after producing six touchdowns in a victory over the Buccaneers the previous week.
“When they pressure our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It is not a safe way to compete and it isn't a good way to keep our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We’ve got to play better.”
Allen was sluggish to rise after a tackle in the first half. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being contacted so many times during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I encountered a couple personally. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I was losing ground.”
Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half sacks to top the Texans. His second one came when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson rose and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt early in the third.
The Bills competed for a second straight game absent wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was earlier benched for the opening drive of a loss to New England in the fifth week after additionally being delayed for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We are approaching it one day at a time,” the coach said. “I thought he had a improved week, but we are taking it step by step. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir topped the Bills with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a score.
Allen was disappointed that the Bills couldn’t execute in crucial moments.
In the end, we’ve got execute, and we didn’t do a good job of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the situation and whatever condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
