Little went right for Josh Allen in a disappointing game on Thursday evening versus the Houston Texans.
And still he came close to willing the Bills to a victory before an interception in the final minute ended their hopes in a close defeat.
The quarterback endured back-to-back tackles for loss on the Bills’ last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (with seven wins) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
Following a false-start penalty led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off Allen’s throw at the 9-yard line with under half a minute remaining.
“We had a opportunity to win it there at the end,” Allen said. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defensive unit saved us a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”
Proved tough for Allen to get anything going on a night he was sacked a career-high on eight occasions and pressured four other times. Allen passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after producing six touchdowns in a win over Tampa Bay the previous week.
Whenever they pressure our quarterback 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It’s just not a healthy way to play and it isn't a good way to preserve our field general healthy for the remaining games. We need to play better.”
Allen was sluggish to rise after a sack in the first half. He indicated he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so frequently on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple myself. I need to be better at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself going backwards.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had two and a half sacks to top the Texans. His second one came when he almost sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and the defender rose and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo played for a second consecutive matchup absent receiver Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was previously held out for the first series of a defeat to New England in Week 5 after also being late for a team session.
No change. We are approaching it one day at a time,” McDermott said. “I felt he had a improved week, but we’re handling it one day at a time. It was not that it was ignored, but we opted for the guys that give us the best chance.”
Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 yards and Cook had 116 yards and a score.
The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills were unable to execute down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we must perform, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he concluded. “Whatever situation and whatever circumstance, we need to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
