Little clicked for Josh Allen in a disappointing game Thursday night against the Texans.
Yet he came close to driving the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an interception in the final minute sealed their fate in a close defeat.
The quarterback took back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's final possession, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) picked up 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, Calen Bullock intercepted the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds left.
“We had a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen said. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defensive unit saved us a couple of times. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved tough for Allen to establish rhythm on a night he was brought down a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four other times. Allen passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.
“When they hit our quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It is not a safe way to play and it’s not a smart way to preserve our field general healthy for the rest of the season. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Allen was sluggish to rise after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being contacted so frequently on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a few personally. I need to be more effective at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I was losing ground.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to lead the Texans. Another sack occurred when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson got up and pursued him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo competed for a second straight game absent wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a squad gathering before their last game. He was previously benched for the first series of a loss to New England in the fifth week after additionally being delayed for a team session.
No change. We’re just taking it day by day,” the coach noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are taking it step by step. It was not that it was ignored, but we opted for the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir led the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 yards and Cook had 116 yards and a score.
The quarterback was disappointed that the team couldn’t make plays down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we must execute, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the scenario and whatever circumstance, we need to find a way, and we didn’t.”
