Little went well for Josh Allen in a frustrating game on Thursday evening versus the Texans.
Yet he came close to driving the Bills to a win before an interception in the final minute ended their hopes in a close defeat.
The quarterback took consecutive sacks on the Bills’ last drive, leading to a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
After a false-start penalty created a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.
We possessed a opportunity to win it 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’ve got find a way, and we didn’t.”
It was tough for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a night he was brought down a career-high eight times and hit four other times. The QB passed for 253 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a victory over the Buccaneers the previous week.
“When they hit our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott commented. “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 healthy for the remaining games. We’ve got to play better.”
Josh Allen was slow to get up after a tackle 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 questioned about being contacted so frequently during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I ran into a few myself. I need to be better at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”
Allen lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 tackles for loss to top the Texans. His second one occurred when he nearly sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and the defender rose and chased him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt early in the third.
Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup absent wideout Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their last game. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a loss to New England in the fifth week after also being delayed for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We are approaching it day by day,” the coach noted. “I thought he had a better week, but we’re handling it step by step. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that provide the best chance.”
Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was frustrated that the team were unable to make plays down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we must perform, and we failed to succeed of that tonight,” he said. “No matter the scenario and any circumstance, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
