Little went well for Josh Allen in a frustrating game on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.
And still he nearly managed to driving the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an interception in the final minute sealed their fate in a close defeat.
The quarterback took back-to-back sacks on the team's last drive, resulting in a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.
Following a false-start penalty led to a fourth down situation for the Bills, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds remaining.
We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of hanging tough and our defense bailed us out a couple of times. We must figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved difficult for the signal-caller to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst eight times and pressured four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.
“When they hit our quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It’s just not a healthy way to play and it isn't a smart way to keep our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We’ve got to play better.”
Allen was sluggish to rise after a tackle in the first half. He indicated he was fine and that his 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 remarked. “I ran into a few myself. I need to be more effective at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I found myself going backwards.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half tackles for loss to top the Houston defense. Another sack came when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and the defender got up and chased him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt early in the third.
Buffalo competed for a second straight game absent wideout Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was previously benched for the first series of a defeat to New England in the fifth week after additionally being delayed for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We are approaching it one day at a time,” McDermott said. “I felt he had a better week, but we’re taking it step by step. It was not that it was ignored, but we opted for the players that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
Allen was disappointed that the team couldn’t make plays in crucial moments.
In the end, we’ve got perform, and we failed to succeed of that tonight,” he concluded. “No matter the situation and any condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
