Very little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a tough contest Thursday night versus the Texans.
And still he nearly managed to driving the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an interception in the last moments sealed their fate in a 23-19 defeat.
Allen took back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who flipped a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
Following a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for Buffalo, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute remaining.
“We had a chance to win it there at the end,” Josh Allen stated. “We did a solid job of staying in it and our defensive unit saved us a few instances. We must figure it out, and we didn’t.”
Proved tough for the signal-caller to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and pressured four additional instances. The QB threw for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after producing six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay last week.
Whenever they hit 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 safe way to compete and it isn't a smart way to keep our quarterback in good shape for the rest of the season. We’ve got to play better.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to rise after a tackle in the first half. He indicated he was OK and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being contacted so many times during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I encountered a couple personally. I need to be better at disposing of the football. Too many times, I was losing ground.”
Allen lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to lead the Houston defense. His second one occurred when he almost sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and the defender rose and chased him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo competed for a second straight game without wideout Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was earlier held out for the first series of a defeat to New England in the fifth week after additionally being delayed for a team session.
No change. We’re just taking it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a better week, but we’re taking it step by step. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that give us the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a score.
The quarterback was frustrated that the team were unable to execute in crucial moments.
In the end, we must perform, and we failed to succeed of that tonight,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and whatever condition, we need to find a way, and we didn’t.”
