Little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating contest Thursday night against the Texans.
And still he nearly managed to willing the Bills to a win before an late pick in the final minute ended their hopes in a close defeat.
Allen took back-to-back sacks on the team's final possession, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (7-4) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
Following a pre-snap infraction created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds remaining.
We possessed a chance to come out on top there at the end,” Josh Allen stated. “Our team performed a good job of hanging tough and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved tough for the signal-caller to get anything going on a evening he was brought down a career-high eight times and pressured four other times. Allen threw for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after producing six TDs in a win over Tampa Bay the previous week.
Whenever they pressure our QB 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach McDermott commented. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It is not a safe way to compete and it isn't a good way to keep our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We need to play better.”
Allen was slow to get up after a sack in the first half. He said he was OK and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so many times during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I encountered a few personally. I’ve got to be more effective at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I found myself losing ground.”
Allen lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 sacks to lead the Houston defense. Another sack occurred when he nearly sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and the defender got up and pursued him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo played for a second straight game absent wideout Keon Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was late to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was earlier benched for the first series of a loss to the Patriots in the fifth week after additionally being delayed for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it one day at a time,” McDermott 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 guys that provide the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills were unable to execute in crucial moments.
In the end, we’ve got perform, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the scenario and any condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
