Little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing game Thursday night against the Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to willing the Bills to a win before an late pick in the final minute ended their hopes in a close loss.
Allen took back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ final possession, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate.
After a false-start penalty created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, a Texans defender picked off Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with under half a minute left.
We possessed a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Allen said. “Our team performed a solid job of hanging tough and our defensive unit bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got find a way, and we didn’t.”
Proved tough for the signal-caller to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a career-high on eight occasions and pressured four other times. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after producing six TDs in a victory over the Buccaneers the previous week.
“When they hit our QB a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott said. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It’s just not a safe way to compete and it’s not a good way to keep our field general healthy for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to rise after a tackle in the first half. He said he was OK and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being hit so frequently on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I encountered a couple personally. I’ve got to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I was losing ground.”
Allen lost 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had two and a half sacks to lead the Houston defense. Another sack came when he nearly sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and the defender rose and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt early in the third.
Buffalo played for a second straight game absent wideout 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 loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after also being delayed for a meeting.
No change. We are approaching it one day at a time,” McDermott noted. “I thought he had a better week, but we are taking it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that provide the best chance.”
Shakir topped the Bills with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
Allen was frustrated that the team couldn’t execute down the stretch.
In the end, we must execute, and we didn’t do a good job of that this evening,” he said. “Whatever scenario and any circumstance, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”
