Little clicked for Josh Allen in a frustrating game Thursday night against the Houston Texans.
And still he nearly managed to driving the Bills to a victory before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a close defeat.
The quarterback endured back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's final possession, resulting in a long fourth down, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
Following a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for the Bills, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's throw at the 9-yard line with under half a minute remaining.
We possessed a opportunity to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “We did a solid job of hanging tough and our defense saved us a few instances. We’ve got find a way, and we didn’t.”
It was tough for Allen to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a career-high eight times and pressured four additional instances. Allen threw for 253 passing 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 commented. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It’s just not a safe way to compete and it’s not a smart way to keep our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to get up after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was OK and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so frequently on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I ran into a couple personally. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself going backwards.”
Allen surrendered 70 yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 sacks to top the Texans. His second one came when he nearly took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and Anderson rose and chased him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force 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 tardy to a squad gathering before their last game. He was earlier held out for the opening drive of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being late for a meeting.
No change. We are approaching it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I thought he had a improved week, but we’re handling it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, 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 yards and a touchdown.
Allen was disappointed that the team couldn’t make plays in crucial moments.
In the end, we must perform, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever situation and any condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
