Very little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a tough game Thursday night against 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 loss.
Allen took consecutive sacks on the Bills’ final possession, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) gained significant yardage on a quick throw from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a lateral to another teammate.
Following a pre-snap infraction created a fourth down situation for Buffalo, a Texans defender intercepted the quarterback's pass at the 9-yard line with under half a minute remaining.
We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the end,” Allen stated. “We did a solid job of staying in it and our defensive unit bailed us out 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 evening he was brought down a personal-worst eight times and hit four other times. Allen threw for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers last week.
“When 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’s just not a healthy way to compete and it isn't a smart way to keep our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We’ve got to play better.”
Allen was slow to rise after a tackle in the first half. He said he was fine and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being hit so many times on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I encountered a couple personally. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I was losing ground.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half tackles for loss to top the Texans. His second one occurred when he almost sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson got up and chased him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills competed for a second straight game without receiver Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was late to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was earlier benched for the first series of a loss to the Patriots in the fifth week after additionally being delayed for a team session.
No change. We’re just taking it one day at a time,” the coach said. “I felt he had a better week, but we are handling it step by step. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the guys that give us the best chance.”
Shakir topped the Bills with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 yards and a score.
Allen was frustrated that the team were unable to execute down the stretch.
In the end, we must execute, and we failed to do a good job of that this evening,” he concluded. “No matter the scenario and whatever circumstance, we need to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
