Little went well for Josh Allen in a disappointing game Thursday night versus the Houston Texans.
And still he came close to driving the Bills to a victory before an late pick in the final minute ended their hopes in a close defeat.
The quarterback took back-to-back tackles for loss on the Bills’ final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to another teammate.
Following a false-start penalty led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with under half a minute left.
We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defense saved us a couple of times. We’ve got find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved difficult for Allen to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a career-high eight times and hit four additional instances. Allen threw for 253 yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six TDs in a victory over the Buccaneers last week.
“When they hit our quarterback 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach McDermott commented. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It’s just not a safe way to compete and it’s not a good way to keep our field general in good shape for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”
Josh Allen was slow to get up after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was OK and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being contacted so frequently on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I encountered a couple personally. I’ve got to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 tackles for loss to top the Houston defense. His second one came when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and the defender rose and chased him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt early in the third.
The Bills competed for a second straight game absent wideout Keon Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was previously benched for the first series of a defeat to the Patriots in the fifth week after also being delayed for a meeting.
No change. We’re just approaching it one day at a time,” the coach noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are taking it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the guys that give us the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Bills with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was disappointed that the Bills couldn’t execute in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we failed to succeed of that tonight,” he concluded. “Whatever situation and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to find a way, and we didn’t.”
