Little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating game Thursday night against the Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to driving the Bills to a victory before an late pick in the last moments sealed their fate in a close loss.
The quarterback endured consecutive sacks on the Bills’ last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate.
After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with under half a minute remaining.
“We had a opportunity to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a good job of staying in it and our defensive unit bailed us out a couple of times. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved difficult for Allen to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four additional instances. Allen passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after producing six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.
Whenever they pressure our QB a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It’s just not a safe way to compete and it isn't a smart way to keep our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to get up after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being contacted so many times on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I encountered a couple myself. I’ve got to be better at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had two and a half sacks to top the Texans. Another sack came 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 force a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo played for a second straight game without receiver Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was previously benched for the first series of a loss to New England in the fifth week after additionally being delayed for a meeting.
No change. We are taking it one day at a time,” the coach 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 opted for the guys that give us the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Bills with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t make plays down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we’ve got perform, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he said. “Whatever scenario and any condition, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”
