Little went well for Josh Allen in a tough contest on Thursday evening versus the Houston Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to willing the Bills to a victory before an interception in the last moments sealed their fate in a close loss.
Allen took back-to-back tackles for loss on the Bills’ final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) gained significant yardage 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-and-6 for Buffalo, a Texans defender picked off Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds left.
We possessed a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen stated. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defense saved us a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”
It was difficult for Allen to establish rhythm on a night he was brought down a career-high eight times and hit four other times. Allen passed for 253 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after producing six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.
“When they hit our quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott commented. “I don’t like that stat at all. It’s just not a safe way to compete and it isn't a good way to keep our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We need to play better.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to get up after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was OK and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being contacted so many times on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I ran into a couple personally. I’ve got to be better at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself going backwards.”
Allen lost 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had two and a half sacks to lead the Texans. Another sack occurred when he almost sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and the defender rose and chased him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt early in the third.
The Bills played for a second consecutive matchup absent receiver Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was earlier held out for the first series of a defeat to the Patriots in the fifth week after also being delayed for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We are approaching it one day at a time,” McDermott said. “I felt he had a improved week, but we’re taking it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the guys that provide the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
Allen was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t make plays down the stretch.
In the end, we must execute, and we didn’t do a good job of that this evening,” he concluded. “Whatever situation and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to find a way, and we came up short.”
