Very little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a tough game on Thursday evening versus the Texans.
And still he nearly managed to driving the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an late pick in the final minute ended their hopes in a close defeat.
Allen endured consecutive sacks on the team's final possession, resulting in 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 lateral to Khalil Shakir.
After a pre-snap infraction created a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, a Texans defender intercepted Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.
“We had a chance to win it there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “Our team performed 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.”
It was tough for Allen to get anything going on a night he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and pressured four other times. The QB threw for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after producing six touchdowns in a win over Tampa Bay last week.
Whenever they pressure our QB a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott commented. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It is not a safe way to compete and it isn't a smart way to keep our field general healthy for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to rise after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being hit so frequently on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple myself. I need to be better at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I was going backwards.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had two and a half sacks to lead the Texans. His second one occurred when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and the defender rose and pursued him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt early in the third.
The Bills competed for a second consecutive matchup absent receiver Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was tardy to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was previously held out for the first series of a defeat to New England in Week 5 after also being delayed for a team session.
“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are handling it step by step. It was not that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that provide the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir led the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t execute in crucial moments.
In the end, we’ve got perform, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he concluded. “Whatever situation and whatever condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
