Little went well for Josh Allen in a disappointing game on Thursday evening versus the Houston Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to driving the Bills to a victory before an late pick in the final minute sealed their fate in a 23-19 defeat.
Allen took back-to-back tackles for loss on the Bills’ last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) gained significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.
Following a false-start penalty led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's throw at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds remaining.
We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a good job of hanging tough and our defensive unit saved us a few instances. We’ve got find a way, and we didn’t.”
Proved difficult for the signal-caller to get anything going on a night he was sacked a career-high eight times 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 victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.
“When they hit our QB a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it isn't a smart way to preserve our field general healthy for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”
Josh Allen was slow to rise after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was OK and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so many times during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple myself. I need to be better at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I found myself losing ground.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half tackles for loss to top the Texans. His second one came when he nearly took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and Anderson got up and pursued him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo played for a second consecutive matchup absent wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a squad gathering before their last game. He was previously benched for the first series of a loss to New England in Week 5 after also being delayed for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it one day at a time,” McDermott noted. “I thought he had a better week, but we’re taking it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that provide the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
Allen was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t make plays in crucial moments.
In the end, we must perform, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he said. “Whatever scenario and whatever circumstance, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”
