Little went well for Josh Allen in a frustrating contest Thursday night versus the Houston Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to driving the Bills to a victory before an late pick in the final minute sealed their fate in a 23-19 loss.
The quarterback endured consecutive sacks on the Bills’ last drive, leading to a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (with seven wins) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
Following a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.
“We had a opportunity to win it there at the end,” Allen said. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defense saved us a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was difficult for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a evening he was sacked a career-high on eight occasions and pressured four other times. Allen passed for 253 yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six TDs in a win over Tampa Bay the previous week.
Whenever they pressure our QB a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It is not a safe way to play and it isn't a good way to keep our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”
Allen was sluggish to rise after a tackle in the first half. He said he was fine and that his left 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 remarked. “I encountered a few personally. I need to be better at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself going backwards.”
Allen surrendered 70 yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 tackles for loss to lead the Texans. Another sack occurred when he almost sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and the defender rose and pursued him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt early in the third.
The Bills played for a second consecutive matchup absent wideout Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their last game. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a defeat to New England in Week 5 after additionally being late for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it day by day,” McDermott 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 opted for the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir led the Bills with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was disappointed that the Bills were unable to make plays down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we must execute, and we didn’t do a good job of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the scenario and whatever condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”