Little clicked for Josh Allen in a disappointing contest on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.
Yet he came close to driving the Bills to a victory before an late pick in the last moments sealed their fate in a close loss.
The quarterback 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) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.
Following a pre-snap infraction 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 chance to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen said. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out a couple of times. We’ve got find a way, and we didn’t.”
It was tough for Allen to establish rhythm on a night he was brought down a personal-worst eight times and hit four additional instances. Allen passed for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six TDs in a victory over the Buccaneers the previous week.
“When they hit our quarterback 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It is not a healthy way to play and it’s not a good way to preserve our field general healthy for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”
Josh Allen was slow to rise after a sack in the first half. He indicated he was OK and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being contacted so many times during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I ran into a couple personally. I need to be better at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I found myself losing ground.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to top the Texans. Another sack came when he almost sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson rose and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt early in the third.
Buffalo played for a second straight game without wideout Coleman after he was once more 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 Week 5 after also being delayed for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We’re just taking it one day at a time,” the coach said. “I felt he had a better week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the guys that provide the best chance.”
Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
Allen was disappointed that the Bills were unable to make plays in crucial moments.
In the end, we’ve got perform, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he concluded. “No matter the scenario and any circumstance, we need to find a way, and we didn’t.”
