Very little went well for Josh Allen in a frustrating contest Thursday night against the Houston Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an interception in the last moments sealed their fate in a close loss.
Allen took consecutive tackles for loss on the Bills’ last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth down situation for the Bills, a Texans defender intercepted the quarterback's pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.
“We had a chance to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen stated. “Our team performed a solid job of hanging tough and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved tough for Allen to get anything going on a evening he was brought down a career-high eight times and hit four other times. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and zero scores after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.
Whenever they pressure our quarterback 12 times, that's unacceptable,” 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 keep our field general in good shape for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”
Josh Allen was slow to get up after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was fine and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being contacted so many times during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I ran into a few personally. I need to be better at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself going backwards.”
Allen lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half tackles for loss to top the Houston defense. His second one came when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson got up and chased him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills played for a second straight game without 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 held out for the opening drive of a defeat to the Patriots in the fifth week after also being late for a team session.
“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it day by day,” the coach said. “I thought he had a better week, but we’re taking it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
Allen was disappointed that the Bills were unable to make plays down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we must perform, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and whatever circumstance, we need to find a way, and we didn’t.”
