Very little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing contest on Thursday evening against the Texans.
And still he nearly managed to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a close defeat.
The quarterback endured back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) gained significant yardage on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate.
Following a false-start penalty led to a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, Calen Bullock intercepted 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. “Our team performed a good job of hanging tough and our defense saved us a few instances. We must figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved tough for Allen to get anything going on a night he was brought down a career-high eight times and pressured four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.
“When they pressure our quarterback 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It is not a safe way to compete and it isn't a good way to keep our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We need to play better.”
Allen was sluggish to get up after a sack in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being contacted so many times during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I ran into a couple myself. I need to be better at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I found myself losing ground.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 sacks to top the Texans. His second one came when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and the defender got up and pursued him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt early in the third.
Buffalo played for a second straight game absent wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was previously benched for the opening drive of a loss to New England in the fifth week after additionally being late for a team session.
No change. We are approaching it day by day,” the coach said. “I felt he had a better week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It was not that it was ignored, but we went with the players that provide the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was frustrated that the team couldn’t execute down the stretch.
In the end, we must execute, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he concluded. “No matter the situation and whatever condition, we need to find a way, and we didn’t.”
