Little went right for Josh Allen in a frustrating game on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.
And still he nearly managed to driving the Buffalo Bills to a win before an interception in the last moments sealed their fate in a close defeat.
The quarterback took back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a lateral to another teammate.
Following a pre-snap infraction created a fourth down situation for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute remaining.
We possessed a opportunity to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of hanging tough and our defensive unit saved us a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved tough for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a night he was sacked a career-high on eight occasions and pressured four additional instances. Allen threw for 253 yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay last week.
Whenever they pressure our QB a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It is not a safe way to play and it’s not a good way to preserve our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We’ve got to play better.”
Allen was sluggish to rise after a tackle in the first half. He indicated he was fine and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being contacted so frequently during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I ran into a couple myself. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I was going backwards.”
Allen lost 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had two and a half sacks to lead the Texans. His second one occurred when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and Anderson got up and chased him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo played for a second consecutive matchup absent receiver Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a squad gathering before their last game. He was earlier benched for the opening drive of a defeat to the Patriots in the fifth week after also being delayed for a meeting.
No change. We are approaching it one day at a time,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are taking it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the players that provide the best chance.”
Shakir led the Bills with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
Allen was frustrated that the team were unable to make plays down the stretch.
In the end, we’ve got execute, and we didn’t do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever situation and any condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
