Little clicked for Josh Allen in a disappointing contest Thursday night versus the Houston Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to driving the Bills to a win before an interception in the final minute sealed their fate in a 23-19 defeat.
Allen endured consecutive sacks on the Bills’ final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (with seven wins) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
After a false-start penalty created a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, a Texans defender intercepted Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds remaining.
“We had a chance to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Allen said. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defense saved us a couple of times. We must figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved tough for Allen to establish rhythm on a night 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 zero scores after producing six touchdowns in a win over Tampa Bay last week.
Whenever they hit our QB a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott commented. “I don’t like that stat at all. It is not a safe way to play and it’s not a smart way to preserve our field general in good shape for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”
Allen was sluggish to rise after a sack in the first half. He indicated he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being contacted so many times on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I ran into a few myself. I’ve got to be more effective at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I was going backwards.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had two and a half sacks to top the Texans. His second one came when he nearly took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and the defender rose and chased him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt early in the third.
The Bills played for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their last game. He was previously benched for the first series of a loss to New England in the fifth week after also being delayed for a team session.
No change. We’re just taking it one day at a time,” McDermott said. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are taking it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
Allen was frustrated that the team couldn’t make plays down the stretch.
In the end, we must perform, and we didn’t do a good job of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the scenario and whatever circumstance, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
