Very little clicked for Josh Allen in a tough game Thursday night versus the Texans.
Yet he came close to willing the Bills to a win before an interception in the last moments sealed their fate in a close loss.
Allen took back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's last drive, resulting in a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) gained significant yardage on a quick throw from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
Following a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, Calen Bullock intercepted the quarterback's throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.
We possessed a chance to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of staying in it and our defense saved us a few instances. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved tough for Allen to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four other times. Allen threw for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after accounting for six TDs in a win over Tampa Bay last week.
Whenever they hit our quarterback 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a good way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We need to improve our performance.”
Allen was sluggish to get up after a sack 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 contacted so frequently during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I ran into a couple myself. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I was going backwards.”
Allen surrendered 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half sacks to top the Texans. Another sack came when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and Anderson rose and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt early in the third.
Buffalo competed for a second straight game without receiver Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was previously held out for the first series of a defeat to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being delayed for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it day by day,” McDermott said. “I thought he had a improved week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
Allen was frustrated that the team were unable to make plays in crucial moments.
In the end, we’ve got execute, and we didn’t do a good job of that tonight,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
