Little clicked for Josh Allen in a frustrating contest Thursday night versus the Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an late pick in the final minute sealed their fate in a close loss.
The quarterback took consecutive sacks on the team's final possession, leading to a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (7-4) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a lateral to another teammate.
Following a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for the Bills, Calen Bullock picked off Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds remaining.
“We had a opportunity to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of staying in it and our defensive unit bailed us out a couple of times. We must find a way, and we didn’t.”
It was difficult for the signal-caller to get anything going on a evening he was brought down a personal-worst eight times and pressured four additional instances. Allen threw for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six TDs in a win over Tampa Bay the previous week.
“When they pressure our quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It is not a safe way to play and it’s not a good way to preserve our field general in good shape for the rest of the season. We need to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was slow to rise after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was OK and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so many times during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I encountered a few myself. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I was going backwards.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half tackles for loss to top the Houston defense. Another sack occurred when he nearly took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and the defender got up and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills competed for a second straight game absent receiver Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was late to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was previously benched for the first series of a defeat to New England in Week 5 after additionally being delayed for a team session.
No change. We are approaching it one day at a time,” McDermott said. “I thought he had a improved week, but we are handling 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 rushing yards and a score.
Allen was disappointed that the Bills were unable to make plays in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we must execute, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the situation and any condition, we need to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
