Very little went well for Josh Allen in a frustrating contest on Thursday evening versus the Houston Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to driving the Bills to a win before an late pick in the final minute sealed their fate in a 23-19 defeat.
Allen endured consecutive tackles for loss on the Bills’ final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
Following a pre-snap infraction created a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds remaining.
We possessed a chance to win it there at the end,” Allen stated. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defensive unit saved us a couple of times. We must figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was difficult for the signal-caller to get anything going on a night he was brought down a personal-worst eight times and hit four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after producing six touchdowns in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.
Whenever they pressure our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott commented. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It is not a safe way to compete and it’s not a good way to keep our field general in good shape for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was slow to get up after a sack in the first half. He indicated he was OK and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so many times on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I encountered a couple myself. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I was losing ground.”
Allen surrendered 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had two and a half sacks to top the Houston defense. His second one occurred when he nearly sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and Anderson rose and chased him downfield 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 Keon Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch 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 the fifth week after additionally being late for a meeting.
No change. We are taking it one day at a time,” McDermott noted. “I thought he had a improved week, but we’re taking it step by step. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 yards and a score.
The quarterback was disappointed that the Bills were unable to make plays down the stretch.
In the end, we must perform, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and whatever condition, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
