Little went well for Josh Allen in a disappointing game Thursday night against the Texans.
Yet he came close to willing the Bills to a win before an interception in the last moments sealed their fate in a close loss.
The quarterback took back-to-back sacks on the team's last drive, leading to a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up significant yardage on a quick throw from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
Following a pre-snap infraction created a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds left.
We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the end,” Josh Allen stated. “Our team performed a good job of hanging tough and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We must find a way, and we didn’t.”
It was difficult for Allen to get anything going on a night he was brought down a career-high eight times and hit four other times. The QB threw for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay last week.
“When they hit our quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It is not a safe way to compete and it isn't a good way to preserve our field general in good shape for the rest of the season. We need to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to rise after a sack in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was fine and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being contacted so frequently during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I encountered a few personally. I need to be more effective at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I was going backwards.”
Allen surrendered 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to top the Houston defense. Another sack came when he almost sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson rose and pursued him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt early in the third.
Buffalo competed for a second straight game without wideout Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier held out for the opening drive of a defeat to New England in Week 5 after also being delayed for a team session.
No change. We are approaching it day by day,” the coach said. “I felt he had a better week, but we’re handling it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the players that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 yards and Cook had 116 yards and a score.
Allen was disappointed that the Bills couldn’t execute down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we’ve got perform, and we failed to do a good job of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the situation and any circumstance, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
