Very little went right for Josh Allen in a frustrating contest on Thursday evening versus the Houston Texans.
Yet he came close to driving the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an interception in the last moments ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.
The quarterback took back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
Following a pre-snap infraction created a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.
We possessed a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Allen said. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got find a way, and we didn’t.”
It was difficult for Allen to get anything going on a night he was sacked a career-high on eight occasions and hit four other times. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and zero scores after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.
Whenever they pressure our QB 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It is not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a smart way to keep our field general healthy for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”
Allen was slow to get up after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being contacted so frequently during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I ran into a few myself. I’ve got to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself going backwards.”
Allen lost 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to lead the Houston defense. Another sack came when he nearly sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and Anderson got up and chased him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills played 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 the fifth week after additionally being delayed for a team session.
“Nothing new. We are taking it day by day,” McDermott said. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It was not that it was ignored, but we opted for the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
Allen was disappointed that the Bills couldn’t execute down the stretch.
In the end, we’ve got execute, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “No matter the situation and any circumstance, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
