Very little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing game on Thursday evening versus the Houston Texans.
And still he nearly managed to willing the Buffalo Bills to a win before an interception in the last moments sealed their fate in a close defeat.
Allen endured back-to-back sacks on the team's last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up significant yardage on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who flipped a lateral to another teammate.
Following a pre-snap infraction created a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, a Texans defender intercepted Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds remaining.
We possessed a chance to win it there at the end,” Josh Allen stated. “We did a solid job of staying in it and our defensive unit bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”
Proved difficult for the signal-caller to get anything going on a night he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and pressured four other times. Allen passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after producing six touchdowns in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.
Whenever they pressure our quarterback 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It’s just not a healthy way to play and it’s not a good way to keep our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was slow to get up after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was OK and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” 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 few myself. I need to be better at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself going backwards.”
Allen surrendered 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half tackles for loss to top the Texans. Another sack occurred when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and the defender got up and pursued him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills played for a second straight game absent receiver Keon Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was previously benched for the opening drive of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being delayed for a meeting.
No change. We are taking it day by day,” the coach said. “I thought he had a improved week, but we’re taking it step by step. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the players that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
The quarterback was disappointed that the Bills were unable to execute down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we must execute, and we failed to do a good job of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the situation and whatever circumstance, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”
