Little clicked for Josh Allen in a frustrating contest Thursday night versus the Houston Texans.
Yet he came close to driving the Bills to a win before an late pick in the final minute sealed their fate in a close defeat.
Allen endured back-to-back tackles for loss on the Bills’ last drive, leading to a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who flipped a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, Calen Bullock intercepted the quarterback's throw at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds left.
We possessed a opportunity to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen stated. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defensive unit saved us a couple of times. We must find a way, and we didn’t.”
Proved difficult for the signal-caller to get anything going on a night he was brought down a career-high on eight occasions and pressured four other times. Allen threw for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six TDs in a victory over the Buccaneers the previous week.
“When they pressure our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott said. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It is not a healthy way to play and it’s not a good way to keep our field general in good shape for the remaining games. We need to play better.”
Josh Allen was slow to get up after a sack in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was fine and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being contacted so many times during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a few personally. I’ve got to be better at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I found myself going backwards.”
Allen lost 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to top the Houston defense. Another sack occurred when he nearly sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and Anderson rose and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills competed for a second consecutive matchup without receiver Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was earlier benched for the first series of a defeat to the Patriots in the fifth week after additionally being delayed for a meeting.
No change. We are approaching it one day at a time,” 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 wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that provide the best chance.”
Shakir led the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t make plays down the stretch.
In the end, we must perform, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he concluded. “No matter the situation and whatever condition, we’ve got to find a way, and we came up short.”
