Very little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a tough contest Thursday night against the Houston Texans.
And still he nearly managed to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an interception in the final minute sealed their fate in a 23-19 loss.
Allen took back-to-back sacks on the team's final possession, leading to a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) gained significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth down situation for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's throw at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.
We possessed a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “We did a solid job of staying in it and our defensive unit bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”
It was tough for the signal-caller to get anything going on a evening he was brought down a career-high on eight occasions and hit four other times. Allen passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six touchdowns in a win over Tampa Bay the previous week.
“When they pressure our QB a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It is not a healthy way to play and it isn't a smart way to preserve our quarterback in good shape for the rest of the season. We need to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was slow to rise after a tackle in the first half. He said he was fine and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so many times on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a couple personally. I need to be better at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I found myself going backwards.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to top the Texans. His second one occurred when he nearly sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson rose and pursued him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills played for a second consecutive matchup absent wideout Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was previously benched for the first series of a loss to the Patriots in the fifth week after additionally being late for a meeting.
No change. We are approaching it day by day,” McDermott said. “I felt he had a better week, but we’re handling it one day at a time. It was not that it was ignored, but we opted for the players that provide the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t execute down the stretch.
In the end, we must perform, and we didn’t do a good job of that this evening,” he said. “Whatever scenario and whatever condition, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
