Very little went right for Josh Allen in a tough contest Thursday night versus the Houston Texans.
Yet he came close to willing the Bills to a victory before an late pick in the last moments sealed their fate in a close loss.
The quarterback took consecutive tackles for loss on the Bills’ final possession, resulting in a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to a receiver, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
After a false-start penalty led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, a Texans defender intercepted the quarterback's throw at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds left.
“We had a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen stated. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defense saved us a couple of times. We must find a way, and we didn’t.”
Proved difficult for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a night he was brought down a personal-worst eight times and pressured four other times. Allen passed for 253 yards with two interceptions and zero scores after accounting for six TDs in a victory 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 stat at all. It is not a safe way to play and it isn't a smart way to preserve our field general healthy for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to get up after a sack in the first half. He indicated he was OK and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being contacted so frequently during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I encountered a few personally. I need to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I was going backwards.”
Allen lost 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had two and a half tackles for loss to top the Houston defense. Another sack came when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson rose and chased him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to result in 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 earlier benched for the first series of a defeat to New England in Week 5 after also being delayed for a team session.
No change. We are approaching it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a better week, but we are taking it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 yards and Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
Allen was frustrated that the team were unable to make plays in crucial moments.
In the end, we must execute, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he concluded. “No matter the situation and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
