Very little clicked for Josh Allen in a tough contest Thursday night against the Texans.
And still he came close to driving the Buffalo Bills to a win before an late pick in the final minute ended their hopes in a close loss.
Allen took back-to-back tackles for loss on the Bills’ final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to a receiver, who flipped a lateral to another teammate.
Following a false-start penalty led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, a Texans defender intercepted Allen’s throw at the 9-yard line with under half a minute left.
“We had a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a good job of staying in it and our defense saved us a few instances. We must find a way, and we didn’t.”
Proved difficult for the signal-caller to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a career-high on eight occasions and hit four additional instances. Allen passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and zero scores after accounting for six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay last week.
Whenever they hit our quarterback a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It’s just not a safe way to play and it isn't a smart way to keep our field general healthy for the remaining games. We’ve got to play better.”
Allen was slow to get up after a tackle in the first half. He said he was OK and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being hit so many times on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a few personally. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I was losing ground.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 sacks to top the Texans. His second one occurred when he almost sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson got up and chased him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills played for a second consecutive matchup absent wideout Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a squad gathering before their last game. He was previously benched for the first series of a loss to New England in Week 5 after additionally being delayed for a meeting.
No change. We are approaching it day by day,” the coach said. “I thought he had a improved week, but we are handling it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we opted for the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir topped the Bills with eight receptions for 110 yards and Cook had 116 yards and a score.
Allen was frustrated that the team couldn’t execute in crucial moments.
In the end, we must execute, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “No matter the scenario and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to find a way, and we didn’t.”
