Very little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing contest Thursday night versus the Texans.
And still he nearly managed to driving the Buffalo Bills to a win before an late pick in the last moments sealed their fate in a 23-19 loss.
The quarterback endured consecutive sacks on the Bills’ final possession, resulting in a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.
After a false-start penalty created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off Allen’s throw at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds remaining.
We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “We did a solid job of staying in it and our defensive unit saved us a few instances. We’ve got find a way, and we didn’t.”
Proved tough for the signal-caller to get anything going on a evening he was brought down a career-high eight times and pressured four other times. Allen threw for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after producing six touchdowns in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.
Whenever they pressure our quarterback 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it isn't a good way to keep our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We’ve got to play better.”
Allen was sluggish to rise after a sack in the first half. He said he was OK and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being hit so many times during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I encountered a couple myself. I’ve got to be better at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I found myself going backwards.”
Allen lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to lead the Texans. His second one came when he nearly sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and the defender rose and pursued him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills played for a second straight game absent receiver Keon Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was earlier benched for the opening drive of a defeat to New England in Week 5 after also being late for a meeting.
No change. We are taking it day by day,” the coach noted. “I thought he had a better week, but we are taking it one day at a time. It was not that it was ignored, but we opted for the players that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
Allen was frustrated that the Bills were unable to make plays down the stretch.
In the end, we must execute, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he concluded. “No matter the scenario and whatever circumstance, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
