Little clicked for Josh Allen in a tough contest on Thursday evening against the Texans.
And still he nearly managed to driving the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a 23-19 loss.
Allen took back-to-back sacks on the team's last drive, leading to a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
Following a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth down situation for the Bills, a Texans defender intercepted Allen’s throw at the 9-yard line with under half a minute remaining.
We possessed a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a good job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We must figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was tough for Allen to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a career-high eight times and hit four other times. The QB threw for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six touchdowns in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.
Whenever they hit our quarterback 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach McDermott said. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It’s just not a safe way to play and it isn't a smart way to keep our field general in good shape for the rest of the season. We need to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to get up after a tackle in the first half. He indicated he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being contacted so frequently during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I ran into a couple personally. I need to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I was losing ground.”
Allen lost 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to lead the Texans. His second one came when he nearly took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and the defender rose and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt early in the third.
Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup without receiver Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was late to a squad gathering before their last game. He was previously held out for the first series of a loss to New England in Week 5 after also being late for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We are approaching it day by day,” the coach noted. “I thought he had a improved week, but we are taking it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that give us the best chance.”
Shakir led the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
Allen was frustrated that the Bills were unable to execute in crucial moments.
In the end, we’ve got 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.”
