Little clicked for Josh Allen in a frustrating game on Thursday evening against the Houston 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 23-19 defeat.
The quarterback endured back-to-back sacks on the team's final possession, resulting in a long fourth down, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up significant yardage on a quick throw from Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
Following a pre-snap infraction created a fourth down situation for Buffalo, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's pass at the 9-yard line with under half a minute remaining.
“We had a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Allen stated. “We did a solid job of hanging tough and our defense saved us a couple of times. We’ve got find a way, and we didn’t.”
Proved tough for Allen to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and pressured four additional instances. Allen passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a victory over the Buccaneers the previous week.
“When they pressure our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It’s just not a safe way to compete and it isn't a good way to keep our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”
Allen was sluggish to get up after a tackle in the first half. He said he was fine and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so frequently on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple personally. I’ve got to be better at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I was going backwards.”
Allen surrendered 70 yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half tackles for loss to top the Texans. His second one occurred when he nearly sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and the defender rose and chased him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt early in the third.
The Bills played for a second straight game without wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was previously benched for the first series of a loss to New England in Week 5 after also being delayed for a team session.
“Nothing new. We are approaching it one day at a time,” the coach said. “I thought he had a better week, but we’re handling it step by step. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the guys that give us the best chance.”
Shakir led the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 yards and Cook had 116 yards and a score.
The quarterback was disappointed that the team were unable to execute down the stretch.
In the end, we’ve got execute, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he concluded. “No matter the scenario and whatever condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
