Very little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing contest Thursday night versus the Houston Texans.
Yet he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a close loss.
Allen took consecutive sacks on the team's final possession, leading to a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (7-4) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate.
Following a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for the Bills, a Texans defender intercepted the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute remaining.
We possessed a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen stated. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defensive unit bailed us out a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”
It was tough for Allen to establish rhythm on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst eight times and pressured four additional instances. Allen passed for 253 yards with two interceptions and zero scores after accounting for six touchdowns in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.
Whenever they hit our quarterback a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott commented. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a smart way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was slow to get up after a sack in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was OK and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was asked about being contacted so many times during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I ran into a couple personally. I’ve got to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Houston defense. Another sack occurred when he almost sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and Anderson rose and pursued him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt early in the third.
Buffalo competed for a second straight game absent wideout Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was earlier held out for the opening drive of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being delayed for a team session.
No change. We’re just approaching it day by day,” the coach noted. “I thought he had a better week, but we are handling it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we opted for the players that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir led the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a score.
Allen was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t make plays down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we must perform, and we didn’t do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “No matter the scenario and whatever circumstance, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”
