Little went right for Josh Allen in a disappointing contest on Thursday evening versus the Texans.
And still he came close to willing the Bills to a victory before an late pick in the final minute sealed their fate in a 23-19 defeat.
Allen took back-to-back sacks on the team's last drive, resulting in a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a quick throw from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.
Following a pre-snap infraction created a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, a Texans defender intercepted Allen’s throw at the 9-yard line with under half a minute remaining.
“We had a opportunity to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out a couple of times. We’ve got find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved difficult for Allen to get anything going on a night he was brought down a personal-worst eight times and pressured four other times. The QB threw for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after accounting for six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.
Whenever they hit our quarterback 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It’s just not a safe way to play and it isn't a good way to keep our field general in good shape for the remaining games. We need to play better.”
Allen was slow to get up after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was OK and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being contacted so frequently on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a few personally. I need to be more effective at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I found myself going backwards.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half tackles for loss to top the Texans. Another sack came when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson got up and chased him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Keon Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a squad gathering before their last game. He was earlier held out for the first series of a defeat to the Patriots in the fifth week after additionally being late for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it one day at a time,” the coach noted. “I felt he had a better week, but we’re handling it step by step. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir led the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t make plays down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we must perform, and we didn’t do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “No matter the scenario and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to find a way, and we came up short.”
