Very little went right for Josh Allen in a disappointing game on Thursday evening versus the Texans.
And still he came close to driving the Bills to a win before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a 23-19 loss.
The quarterback endured consecutive tackles for loss on the Bills’ final possession, leading to a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (7-4) gained 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate.
Following a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.
We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen said. “We did a solid job of staying in it and our defensive unit saved us a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was tough for Allen to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst eight times and pressured four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after producing six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay last week.
“When they hit our quarterback 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It is not a safe way to compete and it’s not a smart way to preserve our quarterback in good shape for the rest of the season. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Allen was slow to get up after a tackle in the first half. He indicated he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being contacted so many times on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I encountered a couple myself. I need to be better at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had two and a half sacks to lead the Houston defense. Another sack came when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson got up and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills played for a second straight game without wideout Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier held out for the opening drive of a defeat to the Patriots in the fifth week after also being delayed for a team session.
“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it day by day,” the coach noted. “I thought he had a improved week, but we’re taking it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir topped the Bills with eight receptions for 110 yards and Cook had 116 yards and a score.
The quarterback was disappointed that the Bills were unable to make plays down the stretch.
In the end, we’ve got execute, and we failed to do a good job of that this evening,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and whatever condition, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
