Very little clicked for Josh Allen in a tough game on Thursday evening against the Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to willing the Bills to a win before an late pick in the last moments sealed their fate in a close loss.
The quarterback endured consecutive sacks on the Bills’ final possession, resulting in a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) gained significant yardage on a quick throw from Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate.
After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with under half a minute remaining.
We possessed a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen said. “Our team performed a solid job of hanging tough and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We must figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was tough for Allen to establish rhythm on a night he was sacked a career-high eight times and hit four additional instances. Allen threw for 253 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after producing six touchdowns in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.
“When they pressure our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It is not a safe way to play and it isn't a good way to preserve our field general healthy for the rest of the season. We’ve got to play better.”
Allen was slow to rise after a tackle in the first half. He indicated he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being hit so frequently during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a couple personally. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I was going backwards.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to top the Texans. His second one came when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and the defender got up and chased him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt early in the third.
The Bills played for a second straight game without wideout Keon Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their last game. He was earlier benched for the opening drive of a loss to the Patriots in the fifth week after also being delayed for a team session.
No change. We’re just taking it day by day,” McDermott said. “I felt he had a better week, but we are taking it one day at a time. It was not that it was ignored, but we opted for the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Bills with eight receptions for 110 yards and Cook had 116 yards and a score.
The quarterback was frustrated that the team couldn’t execute in crucial moments.
In the end, we must perform, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he concluded. “No matter the situation and any condition, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”
