Little clicked for Josh Allen in a disappointing game on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to willing the Buffalo Bills to a win before an late pick in the final minute sealed their fate in a 23-19 defeat.
Allen endured back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.
Following a false-start penalty led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's pass at the 9-yard line with under half a minute 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 saved us a few instances. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved tough for Allen to get anything going on a night he was brought down a career-high eight times and pressured four additional instances. Allen passed for 253 yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six touchdowns in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.
“When they pressure our quarterback 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 safe way to compete and it’s not a smart way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”
Allen was sluggish 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 landed on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so frequently on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I encountered a few personally. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I found myself losing ground.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 tackles for loss to top the Texans. His second one came when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson got up and chased him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt early in the third.
The Bills played for a second straight game absent wideout Keon Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was previously held out for the first series of a loss to New England in the fifth week after also being delayed for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We are approaching it day by day,” McDermott said. “I felt he had a better week, but we are taking it step by step. It was not that it was ignored, but we went with the players that provide the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
Allen was frustrated that the team were unable to execute down the stretch.
In the end, we’ve got execute, and we failed to succeed of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever scenario and whatever condition, we’ve got to find a way, and we didn’t.”
