Very little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a tough contest Thursday night against the Houston Texans.
Yet he came close to driving the Buffalo Bills to a win before an interception in the last moments sealed their fate in a 23-19 defeat.
Allen took consecutive sacks on the team's last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
Following a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for Buffalo, a Texans defender intercepted Allen’s throw at the 9-yard line with under half a minute left.
“We had a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Allen stated. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defensive unit saved us a couple of times. We must find a way, and we didn’t.”
Proved difficult for Allen to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a career-high eight times and pressured four other times. Allen passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.
Whenever they pressure our quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It is not a healthy way to play and it’s not a smart way to preserve our field general healthy for the remaining games. We need to play better.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to rise after a tackle in the first half. He said he was OK and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so frequently during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple myself. I’ve got to be better at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I found myself going backwards.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to lead the Texans. Another sack occurred when he nearly took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and Anderson rose and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt early in the third.
Buffalo played for a second straight game without receiver Keon Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their last game. He was previously held out for the first series of a loss to the Patriots in the fifth week after additionally being delayed for a meeting.
No change. We’re just taking it day by day,” the coach said. “I felt he had a improved week, but we’re taking it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the players that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir led the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was disappointed that the team couldn’t execute in crucial moments.
In the end, we must perform, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and any condition, we need to find a way, and we didn’t.”
