Little clicked for Josh Allen in a tough contest on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.
And still he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a win before an interception in the last moments sealed their fate in a close loss.
Allen took back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
Following a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth down situation for the Bills, Calen Bullock picked off Allen’s pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute remaining.
We possessed a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen stated. “We did a solid job of hanging tough 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 establish rhythm on a evening he was sacked a career-high on eight occasions and hit four other times. The QB threw for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after producing six TDs in a victory over the Buccaneers the previous week.
Whenever they pressure our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott commented. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It’s just not a safe way to compete and it’s not a smart way to keep our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We need to play better.”
Allen was slow to rise after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was OK and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being contacted so frequently during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I ran into a few myself. I need to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I was going backwards.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half tackles for loss to top the Houston defense. His second one occurred when he nearly took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and the defender rose and pursued him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills played for a second consecutive matchup absent wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was earlier held out for the opening drive of a loss to New England 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 one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the players that give us the best chance.”
Shakir led the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
Allen was disappointed that the Bills couldn’t execute in crucial moments.
In the end, we must perform, and we didn’t do a good job of that this evening,” he said. “Whatever scenario and any circumstance, we’ve got to find a way, and we came up short.”
