Little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating game Thursday night against the Houston Texans.
Yet he came close to driving the Bills to a victory before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.
The quarterback took consecutive sacks on the team's final possession, resulting in a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
Following a false-start penalty led to a fourth down situation for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off Allen’s pass at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds remaining.
We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen stated. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defensive unit bailed us out a couple of times. We’ve got find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was tough for Allen to get anything going on a night he was brought down a career-high eight times and pressured four additional instances. Allen passed for 253 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after producing six TDs in a win over Tampa Bay last week.
Whenever they pressure our quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It is not a healthy way to play and it’s not a smart way to preserve our field general healthy for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was slow to get up after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was fine and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being hit so frequently during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I ran into a couple myself. I’ve got to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to top the Texans. His second one occurred when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and the defender got up and chased him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo played for a second consecutive matchup without receiver Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was tardy to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was previously benched for the first series of a loss to the Patriots in the fifth week after additionally being late for a team session.
No change. We’re just taking it day by day,” the coach said. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are taking it step by step. It was not that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Bills with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
Allen was disappointed that the team couldn’t make plays in crucial moments.
In the end, we’ve got perform, and we didn’t do a good job of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the situation and whatever circumstance, we need to find a way, and we didn’t.”
