Little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing contest on Thursday evening versus the Texans.
And still he nearly managed to willing the Bills to a victory before an interception in the last moments sealed their fate in a 23-19 loss.
Allen took consecutive sacks on the Bills’ final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a quick throw from Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate.
After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.
We possessed a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved difficult for Allen to get anything going on a night he was sacked a personal-worst eight times and hit four additional instances. Allen passed for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after accounting for six touchdowns in a victory over Tampa Bay last week.
“When they pressure our quarterback 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It is not a safe way to play and it isn't a smart way to preserve our quarterback in good shape for the rest of the season. We’ve got to play better.”
Josh Allen was slow to get up after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was OK and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being contacted so frequently during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I ran into a couple myself. I need to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I was losing ground.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to top the Houston defense. His second one came when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and the defender got up and chased him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt early in the third.
The Bills played for a second straight game absent receiver Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was previously held out for the first series of a defeat to New England in Week 5 after also being delayed for a team session.
“Nothing new. We are approaching it day by day,” the coach said. “I thought he had a better week, but we are handling it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was disappointed that the Bills couldn’t make plays down the stretch.
In the end, we must perform, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever situation and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to find a way, and we didn’t.”
