Little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing contest Thursday night against the Houston Texans.
And still he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an late pick in the final minute sealed their fate in a close loss.
The quarterback took consecutive tackles for loss on the team's final possession, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (with seven wins) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
Following a false-start penalty led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off Allen’s throw at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.
We possessed a chance to win it there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “We did a solid job of hanging tough and our defensive unit saved us a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”
Proved tough for the signal-caller to get anything going on a night he was sacked a career-high on eight occasions and hit four additional instances. The QB threw for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.
“When they hit our quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It is not a safe way to play and it isn't a smart way to keep our field general in good shape for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to rise after a sack in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was OK and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being contacted so many times on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I encountered a few myself. I need to be more effective at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I found myself losing ground.”
Allen lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to lead the Texans. Another sack came when he nearly took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and Anderson got up and chased him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo competed for a second straight game without wideout Keon Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a squad gathering before their last game. He was previously held out for the first series of a defeat to New England in the fifth week after additionally being delayed for a team session.
No change. We’re just approaching it one day at a time,” McDermott said. “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 opted for the players that give us the best chance.”
Shakir topped the Bills with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was disappointed that the team couldn’t execute down the stretch.
In the end, we must perform, and we failed to succeed of that tonight,” he said. “No matter the scenario and any circumstance, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”
