Very little went right for Josh Allen in a frustrating game on Thursday evening against the Texans.
And still he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an late pick in the final minute ended their hopes in a close defeat.
Allen endured back-to-back sacks on the team's final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
After a false-start penalty created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's throw at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds remaining.
We possessed a opportunity to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defensive unit bailed us out a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”
It was tough for the signal-caller to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four other times. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and zero scores after accounting for six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.
Whenever they hit our quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It is not a safe way to compete and it’s not a smart way to keep our field general healthy for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”
Allen was sluggish to rise after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He said he was fine and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so frequently during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I encountered a few personally. I need to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I found myself losing ground.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to top the Houston defense. Another sack occurred when he almost 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 deficit to result in a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills played for a second straight game absent wideout Keon Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was tardy to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was earlier held out for the opening drive of a loss to New England in the fifth week after additionally being delayed for a team session.
No change. We are taking it one day at a time,” the coach said. “I felt he had a improved week, but we’re taking it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the players that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir led the Bills with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
The quarterback was frustrated that the team were unable to execute in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we must execute, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever situation and whatever condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
