Little clicked for Josh Allen in a frustrating game on Thursday evening versus the Houston Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to driving the Bills to a victory before an late pick in the final minute ended their hopes in a 23-19 loss.
The quarterback endured consecutive sacks on the Bills’ last drive, leading to a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
After a false-start penalty led to a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, Calen Bullock intercepted the quarterback's throw at the 9-yard line with under half a minute left.
We possessed a opportunity to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of hanging tough and our defensive unit bailed us out a couple of times. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved tough for Allen to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a career-high on eight occasions and pressured four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 yards with two interceptions and zero scores after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over Tampa Bay the previous week.
“When they pressure our QB 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it isn't a smart way to preserve our field general in good shape for the rest of the season. We need to improve our performance.”
Allen was slow to rise after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being hit so many times on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I ran into a few personally. I’ve got to be better at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I was losing ground.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to top the Texans. Another sack occurred when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson got up and chased him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt early in the third.
The Bills played for a second straight game absent receiver Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier held out for the first series of a loss to the Patriots in the fifth week after additionally being late for a team session.
No change. We are approaching it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a better week, but we are handling it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we opted for the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir led the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was disappointed that the team were unable to execute in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we must perform, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and any condition, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
