Very little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating game on Thursday evening against 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 defeat.
The quarterback took consecutive sacks on the team's last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a lateral to another teammate.
After a pre-snap infraction created a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with under half a minute left.
We possessed a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen said. “Our team performed a solid job of hanging tough and our defensive unit saved us a couple of times. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was difficult for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four other times. Allen passed for 253 yards with two interceptions and zero scores after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over the Buccaneers last week.
“When they hit our QB a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It’s just not a safe way to play and it isn't a smart way to keep our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to rise after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was OK and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so many times during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple personally. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I found myself going backwards.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had two and a half tackles for loss to top the Texans. Another sack occurred when he nearly took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and Anderson rose and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt early in the third.
The Bills competed for a second consecutive matchup absent wideout Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their last game. He was previously held out for the first series of a loss to the Patriots in the fifth week after also being late for a team session.
No change. We’re just approaching it one day at a time,” McDermott said. “I felt he had a better week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir led the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t make plays down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we must perform, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the situation and whatever condition, we’ve got to find a way, and we came up short.”
