Little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating contest on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.
And still he came close to driving the Bills to a victory before an late pick in the final minute ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.
Allen took consecutive tackles for loss on the Bills’ final possession, leading to a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (with seven wins) gained significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate.
Following a false-start penalty led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds left.
“We had a opportunity to win it there at the end,” Josh Allen stated. “We did a solid job of hanging tough and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved difficult for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a night he was sacked a career-high eight times and pressured four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and zero scores after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over Tampa Bay the previous week.
Whenever they hit our quarterback 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It is not a healthy way to compete and it isn't a smart 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 sluggish to get up after a sack in the first half. He said he was OK and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being hit so frequently during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I encountered a few myself. I need to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself going backwards.”
Allen surrendered 70 yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 sacks to top the Texans. Another sack came when he nearly took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and Anderson got up and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo played for a second straight game absent receiver Keon Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a squad gathering before their last game. He was previously held out for the first series of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after also being late for a team session.
No change. We are taking it one day at a time,” the coach said. “I thought he had a improved week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the players that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
The quarterback was disappointed that the Bills couldn’t make plays in crucial moments.
In the end, we’ve got execute, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the scenario and any condition, we need to find a way, and we didn’t.”
