Very little went well for Josh Allen in a frustrating contest Thursday night against the Texans.
And still he nearly managed to willing the Bills to a win before an interception in the final minute sealed their fate in a 23-19 defeat.
Allen took back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ final possession, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (with seven wins) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
Following a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds remaining.
We possessed a chance to come out on top there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “Our team performed a solid job of hanging tough and our defensive unit bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was difficult for the signal-caller to get anything going on a night he was sacked a career-high on eight occasions and pressured four other times. Allen threw for 253 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six touchdowns in a victory over the Buccaneers the previous week.
Whenever they pressure our QB a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It’s just not a safe way to compete and it’s not a good way to keep our field general healthy for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to rise after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was OK and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being hit so frequently during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I encountered a couple myself. I’ve got to be more effective at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I found myself losing ground.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to top the Houston defense. Another sack came when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson got up and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was late to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was earlier benched for the opening drive of a loss to New England in the fifth week after also being late for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We are taking it one day at a time,” the coach said. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was disappointed that the team couldn’t make plays down the stretch.
In the end, we’ve got perform, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he concluded. “No matter the situation and any condition, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”