Little went well for Josh Allen in a tough contest Thursday night against the Texans.
And still he nearly managed to driving the Buffalo Bills to a win before an interception in the final minute ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.
Allen took back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to a receiver, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted the quarterback's pass at the 9-yard line with under half a minute remaining.
“We had a opportunity to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of hanging tough and our defensive unit bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”
Proved tough for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four other times. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers last week.
“When they pressure our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It’s just not a safe way to play and it’s not a good way to keep our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We’ve got to play better.”
Josh Allen was slow to rise after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so frequently during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a few personally. 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. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to lead the Houston defense. His second one occurred 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 competed for a second straight game without receiver Keon Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was previously benched for the opening drive of a defeat to New England in the fifth week after also being delayed for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We are taking it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we’re handling it one day at a time. It was not that it was ignored, but we opted for the players that provide the best chance.”
Shakir topped the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
The quarterback was frustrated that the team couldn’t make plays down the stretch.
In the end, we’ve got perform, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he concluded. “No matter the situation and any condition, we’ve got to find a way, and we didn’t.”
