Little went well for Josh Allen in a disappointing contest on Thursday evening versus the Houston Texans.
Yet he came close to driving the Buffalo Bills to a win before an interception in the last moments sealed their fate in a close loss.
Allen took consecutive tackles for loss on the Bills’ final possession, resulting in a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to another teammate.
Following a false-start penalty led to a fourth down situation for the Bills, Calen Bullock picked off Allen’s throw at the 9-yard line with under half a minute left.
We possessed a chance to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Allen said. “We did a solid job of hanging tough and our defensive unit saved us a couple of times. We must find a way, and we didn’t.”
It was difficult for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a night he was sacked a personal-worst eight times and pressured four other times. Allen passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers last week.
“When they pressure our QB a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach McDermott commented. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It is not a safe way to compete and it’s not a smart way to preserve our field general in good shape for the remaining games. We need to play better.”
Josh Allen was slow to rise after a sack in the first half. He indicated he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so many times during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I ran into a couple myself. I need to be more effective at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I was going backwards.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to lead the Texans. Another sack occurred when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and the defender rose and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills competed for a second consecutive matchup absent receiver Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was previously held out for the first series of a defeat to New England in the fifth week after additionally being late for a meeting.
No change. We’re just approaching it one day at a time,” the coach noted. “I thought he had a better week, but we are handling it step by step. It was not that it was ignored, but we opted for the guys that give us the best chance.”
Shakir led the Bills with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was disappointed that the Bills couldn’t execute in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we must perform, and we failed to succeed of that tonight,” he concluded. “No matter the scenario and whatever condition, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
