Little went well for Josh Allen in a disappointing contest on Thursday evening versus the 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.
Allen took consecutive sacks on the Bills’ last drive, resulting in a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to another teammate.
After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, Calen Bullock picked off Allen’s throw 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. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defensive unit saved us a few instances. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was tough for Allen to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and pressured four other times. Allen threw for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after producing six touchdowns in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.
Whenever they hit our quarterback a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach Sean McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It is not a safe way to compete and it’s not a smart way to preserve our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”
Allen was slow to rise after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was fine and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so many times on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I ran into a few personally. I’ve got to be more effective at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I was losing ground.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to lead the Texans. Another sack came when he nearly sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and the defender got up and chased him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt early in the third.
The Bills competed for a second consecutive matchup absent receiver Keon Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a defeat to New England in the fifth week after additionally being late for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We’re just taking it day by day,” the coach said. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It was not that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that provide the best chance.”
Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a score.
Allen was disappointed that the team were unable to execute in crucial moments.
In the end, we must execute, and we didn’t do a good job of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the scenario and any condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
