Little went well for Josh Allen in a frustrating game on Thursday evening versus the Texans.
And still he nearly managed to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an interception in the final minute sealed their fate in a close defeat.
Allen endured back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's final possession, leading to a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) gained 44 yards on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a lateral to another teammate.
Following a pre-snap infraction created a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s throw at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.
We possessed a chance to win it there at the end,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a good job of hanging tough and our defensive unit bailed us out a couple of times. We must find a way, and we didn’t.”
Proved tough for the signal-caller to get anything going on a evening he was brought down a career-high on eight occasions and hit four additional instances. Allen passed for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.
Whenever they hit our quarterback 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott said. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It’s just not a healthy way to play and it’s not a smart way to keep our field general healthy for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to get up after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was OK and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so many times on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I ran into a couple myself. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I was going backwards.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to top the Houston defense. Another sack occurred when he almost sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson rose and chased him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt early in the third.
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 last game. He was earlier benched for the opening drive of a loss to New England in Week 5 after also being delayed for a meeting.
No change. We’re just approaching it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I thought he had a improved week, but we’re taking it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we opted for the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir led the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
Allen was disappointed that the Bills were unable to execute down the stretch.
In the end, we must execute, and we failed to succeed of that tonight,” he concluded. “No matter the situation and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
