Little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing contest on Thursday evening versus the Houston Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an late pick in the final minute ended their hopes in a 23-19 loss.
The quarterback endured consecutive tackles for loss on the Bills’ last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) gained 44 yards on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.
After a false-start penalty created a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with under half a minute remaining.
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 defensive unit saved us a couple of times. We must find a way, and we didn’t.”
Proved tough for the signal-caller to get anything going on a night he was brought down a personal-worst on eight occasions and pressured four other times. The QB threw for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a win over Tampa Bay last week.
Whenever they pressure our quarterback 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It’s just not a safe way to play and it isn't a good way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We’ve got to play better.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to get up after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was OK and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was asked about being contacted so many times on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I encountered a couple personally. I need to be more effective at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I was losing ground.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Texans. His second one occurred when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson got up and pursued him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills played for a second straight game absent wideout Keon Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier held out for the first series of a defeat to New England in the fifth week after additionally being delayed for a meeting.
No change. We’re just taking it day by day,” the coach noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we’re handling it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the players that give us the best chance.”
Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
Allen was frustrated that the team were unable to make plays in crucial moments.
In the end, we’ve got perform, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the situation and whatever condition, we’ve got to find a way, and we didn’t.”
