Very little clicked for Josh Allen in a tough game on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.
And still he came close to willing the Bills to a win before an interception in the last moments ended their hopes in a close loss.
Allen endured back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ final possession, resulting in a long fourth down, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, a Texans defender intercepted Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.
We possessed a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “We did a solid job of hanging tough and our defense bailed us out a couple of times. We must figure it out, and we didn’t.”
Proved tough for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and pressured four additional instances. Allen passed for 253 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after producing six touchdowns in a win over Tampa Bay last week.
“When they pressure our quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It is not a safe way to compete and it isn't a smart way to keep our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was slow to rise after a tackle in the first half. He said he was OK and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being hit so many times during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I encountered a few personally. I need to be better at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I found myself going backwards.”
Allen surrendered 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 sacks to lead the Houston defense. His second one occurred when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and Anderson rose and pursued him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills played for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was earlier held out for the first series of a defeat to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being late for a meeting.
No change. We are taking it one day at a time,” McDermott noted. “I thought he had a improved week, but we’re taking it step by step. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the guys that provide the best chance.”
Shakir led the Bills with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 yards and a score.
The quarterback was frustrated that the team were unable to make plays down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and whatever condition, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
