Very little went right for Josh Allen in a frustrating contest on Thursday evening versus the Texans.
Yet he came close to driving the Bills to a victory before an interception in the last moments sealed their fate in a close defeat.
The quarterback took back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (with seven wins) 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 picked off Allen’s throw at the 9-yard line with under half a minute left.
We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the end,” Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of staying in it and our defense saved us a couple of times. We’ve got find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was difficult for the signal-caller to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and pressured four other times. The QB threw for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after producing six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers last week.
“When they pressure our QB 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott commented. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It’s just not a safe way to play and it’s not a good way to preserve our quarterback in good shape for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”
Allen was slow to get up after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was OK and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being hit so many times on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I encountered a few personally. I’ve got to be better at disposing of the football. Too many times, I was going backwards.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to lead the Texans. Another sack came when he almost sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and the defender rose and pursued him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo 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 previous contest. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a defeat to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being late for a team session.
No change. We are taking it one day at a time,” McDermott said. “I thought he had a better week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir led the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
Allen was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t make plays in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we’ve got perform, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever situation and whatever condition, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”
