Very little went right for Josh Allen in a frustrating contest on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.
And still he nearly managed to driving the Bills to a victory before an interception in the last moments ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.
The quarterback endured consecutive tackles for loss on the team's final possession, leading to a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate.
After a false-start penalty led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted the quarterback's throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.
We possessed a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen said. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defensive unit saved us a few instances. We must figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was tough for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst eight times and pressured four other times. Allen threw for 253 yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six touchdowns in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.
“When they hit our quarterback a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It’s just not a healthy way to play and it isn't a good way to preserve our field general healthy for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”
Josh Allen was slow to rise after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so frequently on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I encountered a few personally. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I was going backwards.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half tackles for loss to top the Texans. Another sack occurred when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and Anderson got up and chased him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt early in the third.
The Bills played for a second straight game absent receiver 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 first series of a loss to the Patriots in the fifth week after also being late for a team session.
No change. We’re just taking it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I thought he had a better week, but we are handling it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we opted for the players that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 yards and Cook had 116 yards and a score.
The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills were unable to execute down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we’ve got perform, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever scenario and whatever condition, we need to find a way, and we didn’t.”
