Little clicked for Josh Allen in a frustrating game on Thursday evening against the Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to driving the Buffalo Bills to a win before an interception in the last moments ended their hopes in a 23-19 loss.
Allen took consecutive tackles for loss on the Bills’ last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
After a pre-snap infraction created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, a Texans defender intercepted Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute remaining.
We possessed a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Josh Allen stated. “We did a solid job of staying in it and our defensive unit saved us a couple of times. We must find a way, and we didn’t.”
Proved difficult for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a night he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and pressured four other times. Allen threw for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after producing six touchdowns in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.
Whenever they hit our QB a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach McDermott commented. “I don’t like that stat at all. It’s just not a safe way to play and it isn't a good way to preserve our field general healthy for the remaining games. We’ve got to play better.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to get up after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was fine and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being contacted so frequently on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I encountered a couple myself. I need to be more effective at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself going backwards.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Texans. His second one occurred when he nearly took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and the defender rose and pursued him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt early in the third.
Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup without receiver Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier benched for the opening drive of a defeat to the Patriots in the fifth week after additionally being delayed for a team session.
No change. We are taking it one day at a time,” McDermott noted. “I thought he had a improved week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It was not that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir topped the Bills with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was disappointed that the team couldn’t execute in crucial moments.
In the end, we must perform, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to find a way, and we came up short.”
