Little clicked for Josh Allen in a tough contest on Thursday evening versus the Houston Texans.
And still he nearly managed to driving the Buffalo Bills to a win before an interception in the final minute sealed their fate in a close loss.
Allen endured consecutive tackles for loss on the team's final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, a Texans defender intercepted Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.
We possessed a chance to win it there at the end,” Allen said. “We did a solid job of staying in it and our defensive unit saved us a couple of times. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved tough for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a career-high eight times and hit 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 victory over the Buccaneers the previous week.
“When they pressure our QB a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It is not a safe way to play and it’s not a good way to keep our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We need to play better.”
Allen was slow to get up after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was fine and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being contacted so frequently on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I ran into 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. Anderson had two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Texans. Another sack came when he almost sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson rose and pursued him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo played for a second straight game absent wideout Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a squad gathering before their last game. He was earlier held out for the opening drive of a defeat to the Patriots in the fifth week after additionally being late for a team session.
No change. We’re just approaching it one day at a time,” 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 best chance.”
Shakir topped the Bills with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
Allen was frustrated that the team were unable to execute down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we didn’t do a good job of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the situation and any condition, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
