Very little clicked for Josh Allen in a frustrating game on Thursday evening versus the Texans.
And still he nearly managed to driving the Bills to a victory before an interception in the last moments sealed their fate in a close loss.
The quarterback endured back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ last drive, leading to a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (with seven wins) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who flipped a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
Following a pre-snap infraction created a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s pass at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds left.
We possessed a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen said. “We did a solid job of hanging tough and our defense saved us a few instances. We must figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved tough for Allen to establish rhythm on a night he was brought down a career-high on eight occasions and hit four other times. The QB threw for 253 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after producing six touchdowns in a win over Tampa Bay the previous week.
“When they hit our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott commented. “I don’t like that stat at all. It is not a healthy way to compete and it isn't a good way to preserve our field general in good shape for the remaining games. We need to play better.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to get up after a tackle in the first half. He indicated he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being contacted so many times during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a couple myself. I’ve got to be more effective at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I was losing ground.”
Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to top the Houston defense. His second one came when he nearly sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and the defender rose and pursued him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt early in the third.
Buffalo competed for a second straight game without receiver Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was previously held out for the first series of a defeat to New England in the fifth week after also being delayed for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We are approaching it one day at a time,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a better week, but we’re handling it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the players that give us the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
The quarterback was frustrated that the team couldn’t make plays in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we’ve got perform, and we didn’t do a good job of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the scenario and any condition, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
