Little went right for Josh Allen in a frustrating game on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.
And still he came close to driving the Buffalo Bills to a win before an late pick in the last moments sealed their fate in a 23-19 defeat.
Allen endured back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ final possession, leading to a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
After a false-start penalty created a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s pass at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds remaining.
We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the end,” Allen stated. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defensive unit saved us a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”
It was tough for the signal-caller to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a career-high on eight occasions and hit four other times. Allen passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over Tampa Bay the previous week.
“When they pressure our quarterback 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It’s just not a safe way to compete and it’s not a smart way to keep our quarterback 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 said he was OK and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so many times on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I ran into a few myself. I’ve got to be better at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”
Allen lost 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to top the Houston defense. His second one came when he almost sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and the defender rose and chased him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo played for a second consecutive matchup without receiver Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier benched for the opening drive of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being late for a team session.
“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it one day at a time,” the coach noted. “I thought he had a improved week, but we’re taking it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we opted for the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
Allen was disappointed that the team were unable to execute in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we’ve got perform, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and whatever condition, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”
