Very little clicked for Josh Allen in a tough game Thursday night versus the Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to driving the Bills to a victory before an late pick in the final minute sealed their fate in a 23-19 loss.
Allen endured back-to-back sacks on the team's final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) gained significant yardage on a quick throw from Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, a Texans defender intercepted the quarterback's throw at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds left.
We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the end,” Allen stated. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was tough for Allen to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and pressured four other times. Allen threw for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after accounting for six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay last week.
“When they hit our QB a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it isn't a good way to preserve our field general in good shape for the rest of the season. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was slow to rise after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He said he was OK and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being hit so many times during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I ran into a few myself. I need to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I found myself going backwards.”
Allen surrendered 70 yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to top the Houston defense. Another sack occurred when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson got up and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt early in the third.
Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier benched for the opening drive of a defeat to the Patriots in Week 5 after also being delayed for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it one day at a time,” the coach noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we’re taking it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that give us the best chance.”
Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
Allen was disappointed that the team were unable to make plays down the stretch.
In the end, we must execute, and we failed to succeed of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever situation and whatever condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
