Very little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating contest on Thursday evening versus the Houston Texans.
And still he nearly managed to willing the Bills to a victory before an late pick in the last moments sealed their fate in a 23-19 loss.
The quarterback took consecutive sacks on the Bills’ final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) gained 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute remaining.
“We had a chance to come out on top there at the end,” Josh Allen stated. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defense saved us a couple of times. We must figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved tough for the signal-caller to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and pressured four other times. Allen threw for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after producing six TDs in a victory over the Buccaneers last week.
“When they pressure our QB a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It is not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a smart way to preserve our field general healthy for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was slow to get up after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was fine and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being contacted so many times during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I encountered a few personally. I need to be more effective at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”
Allen surrendered 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had two and a half tackles for loss to top the Texans. His second one came when he almost 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 deficit to result in a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo competed for a second straight game without receiver Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after also being late for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We’re just taking it one day at a time,” McDermott noted. “I thought he had a better week, but we are taking it step by step. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the guys that provide the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t execute down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we must perform, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the scenario and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
