Little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating game Thursday night versus the Texans.
Yet he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a win before an late pick in the final minute ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.
The quarterback endured back-to-back tackles for loss on the Bills’ last drive, resulting in a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) gained significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who flipped a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds left.
We possessed a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Allen stated. “We did a solid job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out a couple of times. We must figure it out, and we didn’t.”
Proved difficult for the signal-caller to get anything going on a night he was sacked a career-high on eight occasions and pressured four additional instances. Allen threw for 253 yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.
“When they pressure our QB a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott said. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It’s just not a healthy way to play and it isn't a good way to keep our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was slow to get up after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He said he was OK and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being contacted so frequently during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple personally. I need to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I was losing ground.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to top the Texans. Another sack came when he nearly took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and Anderson rose and chased him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt early in the third.
Buffalo played for a second consecutive matchup absent wideout Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a loss to New England in Week 5 after additionally being late for a meeting.
No change. We are approaching it day by day,” the coach noted. “I thought he had a better week, but we are taking it one day at a time. It was not that it was ignored, but we went with the players that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
The quarterback was disappointed that the team couldn’t execute in crucial moments.
In the end, we’ve got perform, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he concluded. “No matter the scenario and whatever circumstance, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”
