Little clicked for Josh Allen in a disappointing game on Thursday evening versus the Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to driving the Bills to a victory before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a close defeat.
Allen endured consecutive sacks on the Bills’ final possession, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up significant yardage on a quick throw from Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a lateral to another teammate.
After a false-start penalty created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, a Texans defender picked off Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds remaining.
We possessed a chance to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a good job of hanging tough and our defense bailed us out a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was tough for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a personal-worst eight times and hit four additional instances. The QB threw for 253 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after producing six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.
Whenever they pressure our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott commented. “I don’t like that stat at all. It is not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a good way to preserve our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We’ve got to play better.”
Allen was sluggish to get up after a tackle in the first half. He indicated he was fine and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being contacted so frequently on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I encountered a couple personally. I need to be more effective at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I was going backwards.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 sacks to lead the Houston defense. His second one came when he almost sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson got up and chased him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt early in the third.
Buffalo played for a second straight game absent wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their last game. He was previously benched for the opening drive of a loss to New England in Week 5 after also being delayed for a meeting.
No change. We’re just approaching it one day at a time,” McDermott said. “I felt he had a better week, but we’re handling it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we opted for the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir led the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and Cook had 116 yards and a score.
Allen was disappointed that the Bills couldn’t execute in crucial moments.
In the end, we’ve got perform, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he concluded. “Whatever situation and any circumstance, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
