Little went well for Josh Allen in a disappointing game on Thursday evening versus the Texans.
And still he came close to driving the Buffalo Bills to a win before an late pick in the final minute sealed their fate in a 23-19 defeat.
Allen took back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up significant yardage on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
Following a false-start penalty created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds remaining.
“We had a opportunity to win it there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defensive unit saved us a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”
Proved tough for Allen to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a career-high on eight occasions and pressured four other times. Allen threw for 253 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after producing six touchdowns in a victory over the Buccaneers the previous week.
“When they pressure our quarterback a dozen 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’s not a good way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We’ve got to play better.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to rise after a tackle in the first half. He said he was fine and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being contacted so frequently on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple personally. I’ve got to be more effective at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I was losing ground.”
Allen lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Texans. Another sack came when he nearly took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and Anderson got up and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt early in the third.
The Bills played for a second consecutive matchup absent receiver Keon Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was late to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier held out for the opening drive of a defeat to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being late for a team session.
No change. We’re just approaching it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I thought he had a improved 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 provide the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir topped the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and 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 tonight,” he said. “Whatever scenario and any condition, we need to find a way, and we didn’t.”
