Very little went right for Josh Allen in a tough game on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.
And still he came close to driving the Bills to a win before an interception in the last moments ended their hopes in a close loss.
The quarterback took back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's final possession, resulting in a long fourth down, but Buffalo (with seven wins) gained 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate.
After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds left.
We possessed a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “We did a solid job of staying in it and our defense saved us a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved difficult for the signal-caller to get anything going on a night he was brought down a career-high eight times and pressured four other times. Allen threw for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six touchdowns in a victory over Tampa Bay last week.
“When they pressure our quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It’s just not a healthy way to play and it isn't a good way to preserve our field general in good shape for the rest of the season. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was slow to rise after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was OK and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being hit so many times during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I encountered a few personally. I’ve got to be more effective at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I was losing ground.”
Allen lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half tackles for loss to top the Texans. His second one came when he nearly sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson 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 played for a second straight game absent wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier benched for the first series 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 best chance.”
Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 yards and Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
Allen was disappointed that the Bills were unable to make plays down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we must execute, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he concluded. “No matter the scenario and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to find a way, and we didn’t.”
