Very little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing contest on Thursday evening versus the Texans.
And still he nearly managed to willing the Bills to a win before an late pick in the last moments sealed their fate in a 23-19 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 significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
After a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for the Bills, a Texans defender intercepted Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds remaining.
We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defense saved us a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved difficult for the signal-caller to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a career-high eight times and hit four other times. Allen threw for 253 yards with two interceptions and zero scores after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over the Buccaneers last week.
“When they hit our quarterback a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It’s just not a safe way to play and it isn't a smart way to keep our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We need to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to rise after a sack in the first half. He said he was OK and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being contacted so many times on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I ran into a couple personally. I’ve got to be better at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself going backwards.”
Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to lead the Texans. His second one occurred when he nearly sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and the defender got up and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt early in the third.
The Bills played for a second straight game without receiver Keon Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a loss to the Patriots in the fifth week after additionally being late for a meeting.
No change. We are taking it one day at a time,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a better week, but we are handling it step by step. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir led the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 yards and a score.
The quarterback was disappointed that the Bills were unable to make plays in crucial moments.
In the end, we must execute, and we didn’t do a good job of that tonight,” he concluded. “No matter the scenario and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to find a way, and we came up short.”
