Very little went well for Josh Allen in a disappointing contest on Thursday evening versus the Houston Texans.
And still 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.
Allen took back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a quick throw from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a lateral to another teammate.
Following a false-start penalty created a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off Allen’s throw at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds remaining.
We possessed a chance to win it there at the end,” Josh Allen stated. “Our team performed a solid job of hanging tough and our defensive unit bailed us out a few instances. We must figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was difficult for Allen to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a career-high 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 win over Tampa Bay the previous week.
Whenever they hit our quarterback a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It’s just not a safe way to play and it’s not a good way to preserve our field general in good shape for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”
Allen was slow to rise after a sack in the first half. He said he was OK and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being hit so frequently on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I encountered a couple myself. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I was going backwards.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had two and a half sacks to lead the Houston defense. His second one occurred when he nearly sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson rose and chased him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills played for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was late to a squad gathering before their last game. He was previously held out for the first series of a defeat to the Patriots in Week 5 after also being late for a team session.
No change. We’re just taking it day by day,” the coach noted. “I thought he had a better week, but we are taking it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we opted for the players that give us the best chance.”
Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
Allen was frustrated that the team were unable to make plays in crucial moments.
In the end, we must execute, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he concluded. “No matter the situation and any circumstance, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”
