Very little clicked for Josh Allen in a frustrating contest Thursday night against the Houston Texans.
Yet he came close to driving the Bills to a win before an interception in the final minute sealed their fate in a close defeat.
The quarterback endured consecutive tackles for loss on the Bills’ last drive, leading to a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (with seven wins) picked up significant yardage on a quick throw from Allen to a receiver, who flipped a lateral to another teammate.
Following a false-start penalty led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off Allen’s throw at the 9-yard line with under half a minute left.
We possessed a chance to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen stated. “Our team performed a good job of staying in it and our defensive unit saved us a couple of times. We’ve got find a way, and we didn’t.”
Proved tough for Allen to get anything going on a night he was sacked a career-high eight times and pressured four other times. Allen threw for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a win over Tampa Bay the previous week.
Whenever they pressure our QB a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott commented. “I don’t like that stat at all. It is not a safe way to compete and it isn't a smart way to preserve our field general in good shape for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”
Allen was sluggish to rise after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He said he was OK and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so frequently during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I encountered a few myself. I need to be more effective at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I was going backwards.”
Allen lost 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to top the Texans. Another sack occurred when he nearly sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and the defender got up and pursued him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt early in the third.
The Bills played for a second consecutive matchup absent receiver Coleman after he was again 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 loss to New England in the fifth week after also being late for a team session.
No change. We’re just taking it day by day,” the coach said. “I thought he had a better week, but we’re handling it step by step. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir led the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was disappointed that the Bills couldn’t execute down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we must perform, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever situation and any circumstance, we need to find a way, and we didn’t.”
