Very little clicked for Josh Allen in a frustrating contest on Thursday evening versus the Houston Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to willing the Bills to a victory before an late pick in the last moments sealed their fate in a close loss.
The quarterback endured consecutive sacks on the team's last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (with seven wins) picked up significant yardage on a quick throw from Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate.
After a false-start penalty led to a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, a Texans defender intercepted the quarterback's throw at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.
We possessed a chance to win it there at the end,” Josh Allen stated. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defense saved us a few instances. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved tough for the signal-caller to get anything going on a night he was sacked a career-high eight times and pressured four additional instances. Allen passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and zero scores after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.
Whenever they hit our QB a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head 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 preserve our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We’ve got to play better.”
Allen was sluggish to get up after a tackle in the first half. He indicated he was fine and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so frequently during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I encountered a few myself. I’ve got to be more effective at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I found myself going backwards.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to lead the Texans. His second one came when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson got up and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt early in the third.
The Bills played for a second straight game absent wideout Keon Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was earlier held out for the opening drive of a loss to New England in the fifth week after also being delayed for a meeting.
No change. We are taking it day by day,” the coach noted. “I thought he had a improved week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It was not that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that give us the best chance.”
Shakir led the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
Allen was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t make plays down the stretch.
In the end, we must perform, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and any condition, we need to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
