Little went right for Josh Allen in a disappointing game on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.
And still he came close to driving the Buffalo Bills to a win before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a close loss.
Allen took consecutive tackles for loss on the Bills’ final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to another teammate.
After a false-start penalty led to a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, a Texans defender intercepted Allen’s throw at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds remaining.
We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a solid job of hanging tough and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got find a way, and we didn’t.”
It was difficult 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. Allen threw for 253 yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six touchdowns in a win over Tampa Bay last week.
“When they pressure our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It is not a safe way to compete and it’s not a good way to keep our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We’ve got to play better.”
Allen was slow to rise after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so many times during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I ran into a few myself. I’ve got 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 two and a half sacks to lead the Houston defense. Another sack came when he nearly sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and the defender rose and pursued him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup absent receiver Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was late to a squad gathering before their last game. He was previously benched for the first series of a defeat to New England in Week 5 after additionally being late for a meeting.
No change. We are taking it one day at a time,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we’re handling it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the players that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir led the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
Allen was frustrated 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 this evening,” he concluded. “Whatever situation and any condition, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
