Little went well for Josh Allen in a disappointing contest Thursday night versus the Texans.
And still he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a win before an interception in the last moments ended their hopes in a 23-19 loss.
The quarterback took consecutive tackles for loss on the team's last drive, resulting in a long fourth down, 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 another teammate.
Following a pre-snap infraction created a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with under half a minute left.
We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of staying in it and our defense saved us a few instances. We must figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was tough for the signal-caller to get anything going on a evening he was brought down a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for six touchdowns in a victory over the Buccaneers last week.
Whenever they hit our quarterback 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It is not a safe way to compete and it isn't a good way to keep our field general healthy for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”
Josh Allen was slow to get up after a sack in the first half. He indicated he was OK and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being hit so many times during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a few myself. I need to be more effective at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I found myself going backwards.”
Allen surrendered 70 yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 sacks to top the Houston defense. Another sack came when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and Anderson rose and chased him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt early in the third.
Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was late to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was previously benched for the opening drive of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being late for a meeting.
No change. We’re just taking it one day at a time,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a better week, but we’re taking it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir led the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was frustrated that the team couldn’t execute down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he concluded. “Whatever situation and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to find a way, and we didn’t.”
