Very little clicked for Josh Allen in a tough game on Thursday evening versus the Texans.
Yet he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a win before an late pick in the last moments sealed their fate in a 23-19 loss.
Allen endured back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's last drive, resulting in a long fourth down, but Buffalo (with seven wins) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.
After a false-start penalty created a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, a Texans defender intercepted Allen’s throw at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.
We possessed a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen said. “Our team performed a solid job of hanging tough and our defensive unit saved us a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”
Proved tough for Allen to establish rhythm on a night he was sacked a career-high on eight occasions and pressured four other times. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after producing six touchdowns in a win over Tampa Bay last week.
“When they pressure our quarterback a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It’s just not a safe way to compete and it isn't a smart way to keep our field general in good shape for the rest of the season. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to get up after a sack in the first half. He said he was fine and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being contacted so many times during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple myself. I need to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I was going backwards.”
Allen lost 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to top the Houston defense. Another sack occurred when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and the defender rose and pursued him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo played for a second straight game without wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier benched for the opening drive of a loss to New England in the fifth week after also being delayed for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We are taking it one day at a time,” 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 players that give us the best chance.”
Shakir led the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a score.
Allen was disappointed that the Bills were unable to execute down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we must perform, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he said. “Whatever scenario and whatever circumstance, we need to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
