Little went right for Josh Allen in a frustrating contest Thursday night against the Texans.
And still he came close to driving the Bills to a win before an interception in the final minute ended their hopes in a close loss.
Allen endured consecutive sacks on the team's final possession, resulting in a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) gained significant yardage on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate.
After a pre-snap infraction created a fourth down situation for the Bills, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s pass at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds remaining.
We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “We did a solid job of hanging tough and our defensive unit saved us a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”
Proved tough for the signal-caller to get anything going on a night he was brought down a career-high eight times and pressured four additional instances. The QB threw for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after producing six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.
“When they hit our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott said. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It is 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 play better.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to rise after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was OK and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so frequently during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I ran into a few personally. I’ve got to be more effective at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”
Allen surrendered 70 yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 tackles for loss to lead the Texans. His second one came when he nearly sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson rose and pursued him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo played for a second straight game absent wideout Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their last game. He was previously benched for the first series of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being delayed for a team session.
No change. We’re just taking it one day at a time,” the coach said. “I thought he had a improved week, but we’re handling it step by step. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the players that give us the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir led the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills were unable to execute in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we must perform, and we failed to do a good job of that this evening,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and any circumstance, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
