Very little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating contest Thursday night against the Houston Texans.
Yet he came close to driving the Bills to a win before an late pick in the final minute sealed their fate in a close loss.
The quarterback took back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (with seven wins) gained significant yardage on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
Following a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.
“We had a opportunity to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Allen said. “We did a solid job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”
It was tough for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a career-high on eight occasions and pressured four other times. Allen passed for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after producing six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers last week.
Whenever they hit our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It’s just not a healthy way to play and it isn't a smart way to preserve our field general healthy for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to get up after a sack in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was OK and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being contacted so many times on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I encountered a few myself. I’ve got to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I was going backwards.”
Allen surrendered 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to top the Texans. Another sack occurred when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and the defender got up and pursued him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt early in the third.
The Bills competed for a second straight game without wideout Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a loss to New England in the fifth week after also being late for a team session.
No change. We are taking it one day at a time,” the coach said. “I felt he had a better week, but we are taking it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that provide the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir led the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 yards and Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
Allen was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t make plays in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we’ve got perform, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he said. “Whatever scenario and any condition, we need to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
