Little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a tough game on Thursday evening against the Texans.
Yet he came close to driving the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an interception in the last moments ended their hopes in a close defeat.
The quarterback took consecutive tackles for loss on the Bills’ last drive, resulting in a long fourth down, but Buffalo (with seven wins) gained significant yardage on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who flipped a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
After a false-start penalty led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, a Texans defender picked off Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.
“We had a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defense saved us a few instances. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved difficult for Allen to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a career-high eight times and hit four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and zero scores after accounting for six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers last week.
Whenever they hit our QB a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It’s just not a safe way to play and it isn't a good way to keep our field general healthy for the remaining games. We’ve got to play better.”
Allen was slow to rise after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was OK and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being contacted so many times on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I encountered a few myself. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”
Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 sacks to lead the Houston defense. His second one came when he nearly sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and Anderson rose and chased him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt early in the third.
Buffalo competed for a second straight game absent receiver Keon Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was late to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier benched for the first series of a defeat to the Patriots in the fifth week after additionally being delayed for a team session.
“Nothing new. We are approaching it one day at a time,” McDermott said. “I thought he had a improved week, but we’re taking it one day at a time. It was not that it was ignored, but we went with the players that provide the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir led the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
The quarterback was frustrated that the team couldn’t make plays down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the scenario and any circumstance, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”
