Very little went well for Josh Allen in a tough game Thursday night versus the Houston Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to willing the Bills to a victory before an late pick in the last moments sealed their fate in a close loss.
Allen endured back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ final possession, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (with seven wins) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
Following a pre-snap infraction created a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute remaining.
We possessed a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a good job of staying in it and our defensive unit bailed us out a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was tough for the signal-caller to get anything going on a night he was sacked a personal-worst eight times and hit four additional instances. Allen threw for 253 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after producing six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.
Whenever they pressure our QB a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a smart way to preserve our field general in good shape for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was slow to rise after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was fine and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so frequently on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I encountered a few myself. I’ve got to be more effective at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had two and a half sacks to top the Houston defense. Another sack came when he almost sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and Anderson rose and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt early in the third.
The Bills played for a second consecutive matchup absent receiver Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was earlier held out for the first series of a loss to New England in the fifth week after additionally being late for a team session.
“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it one day at a time,” McDermott said. “I thought he had a better week, but we’re taking it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the guys that give us the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills were unable to make plays down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we must perform, and we didn’t do a good job of that this evening,” he concluded. “No matter the situation and whatever condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
