Very little clicked for Josh Allen in a frustrating contest Thursday night versus the Texans.
And still he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an late pick in the final minute ended their hopes in a close defeat.
The quarterback endured consecutive sacks on the team's final possession, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.
“We had a opportunity to win it there at the end,” Allen stated. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defense bailed us out a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”
Proved difficult for Allen to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and pressured four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after producing six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay last week.
“When they pressure our QB a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach McDermott commented. “I don’t like that stat at all. It’s just not a safe way to play and it’s not a good way to keep our field general healthy for the rest of the season. We need to improve our performance.”
Allen was sluggish to get up after a tackle in the first half. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being contacted so frequently on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple myself. I’ve got to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I was losing ground.”
Allen lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 tackles for loss to lead the Texans. Another sack occurred when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson got up and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt early in the third.
The Bills played for a second consecutive matchup without receiver Keon Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was earlier benched for the first series of a defeat to the Patriots in the fifth week after additionally being delayed for a meeting.
No change. We’re just taking it one day at a time,” McDermott noted. “I thought he had a better week, but we are taking it step by step. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that give us the best chance.”
Shakir topped the Bills with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
The quarterback was frustrated that the team were unable to make plays down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we must execute, and we failed to do a good job of that this evening,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and any condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
