Very little clicked for Josh Allen in a frustrating contest Thursday night versus the Houston Texans.
Yet he came close to driving the Bills to a win before an interception in the last moments sealed their fate in a close defeat.
Allen endured consecutive tackles for loss on the team's last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (7-4) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.
After a false-start penalty led to a fourth down situation for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.
“We had a opportunity to win it there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of hanging tough and our defense saved us a few instances. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was tough for the signal-caller to get anything going on a night he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and pressured four other times. The QB threw for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a win over Tampa Bay last week.
“When they pressure our quarterback 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It’s just not a safe way to play and it’s not a smart way to keep our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Allen was slow to rise after a sack in the first half. He said he was fine and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so many times on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple personally. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I was going backwards.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half tackles for loss to top the Houston defense. Another sack occurred when he nearly took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and Anderson rose and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills competed for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Keon Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was previously benched for the first series of a defeat to the Patriots in Week 5 after also being delayed for a team session.
No change. We are taking it one day at a time,” the coach noted. “I thought he had a better week, but we are handling it step by step. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the players that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir led the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t make plays down the stretch.
In the end, we must perform, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the scenario and any circumstance, we’ve got to find a way, and we didn’t.”
