Very little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating contest on Thursday evening against the Texans.
And still he nearly managed to driving the Buffalo Bills to a win before an late pick in the final minute sealed their fate in a 23-19 defeat.
The quarterback endured back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's final possession, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who flipped a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
After a pre-snap infraction created a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's throw at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds left.
We possessed a chance to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen stated. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defensive unit saved us a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was difficult for the signal-caller to get anything going on a evening he was brought down a personal-worst eight times and pressured four other times. The QB threw for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers last week.
Whenever they hit our quarterback a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It is not a healthy way to compete and it isn't a smart way to keep our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Allen was sluggish to get up after a sack 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 asked about being hit so frequently during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I ran into a couple personally. I’ve got to be more effective at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I was losing ground.”
Allen lost 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had two and a half sacks to top the Texans. His second one occurred when he nearly sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and the defender got up and pursued him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo played for a second straight game absent receiver Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was previously benched for the first series of a defeat to New England in Week 5 after additionally being delayed for a team session.
“Nothing new. We are taking it one day at a time,” the coach noted. “I felt he had a better week, but we’re handling it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that provide the best chance.”
Shakir topped the Bills with eight receptions for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
Allen was disappointed that the team couldn’t make plays down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we must execute, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he said. “No matter the scenario and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
