Very little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating game on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.
And still he nearly managed to driving the Bills to a win before an interception in the final minute ended their hopes in a close defeat.
The quarterback endured consecutive sacks on the team's last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.
After a false-start penalty led to a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off Allen’s pass at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds left.
“We had a chance to come out on top there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defensive unit bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”
Proved difficult for Allen to get anything going on a night he was brought down a personal-worst eight times and pressured four additional instances. The QB threw for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after accounting for six TDs in a win over Tampa Bay 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 is not a safe way to play and it’s not a good way to keep our field general healthy for the remaining games. We need to play better.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to get up after a sack in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was OK and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being hit so frequently during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I ran into a few myself. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I found myself going backwards.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had two and a half sacks to top the Texans. His second one came when he almost sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and the defender rose and pursued him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup absent wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a squad gathering before their last game. He was previously benched for the opening drive of a loss to New England in Week 5 after also being late for a team session.
“Nothing new. We’re just taking it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I thought he had a better 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 give us the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was disappointed that the Bills were unable to make plays down the stretch.
In the end, we must execute, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he concluded. “No matter the scenario and any circumstance, we’ve got to find a way, and we didn’t.”
