Little went well for Josh Allen in a frustrating game on Thursday evening against the Texans.
And still he nearly managed to driving the Buffalo Bills to a win before an interception in the final minute sealed their fate in a 23-19 loss.
The quarterback took consecutive sacks on the team's last drive, resulting in a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) picked up significant yardage on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate.
After a false-start penalty led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's throw at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.
“We had a opportunity to win it there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defensive unit bailed us out a couple of times. We must figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved tough for Allen to establish rhythm on a evening he was sacked a career-high eight times and hit four other times. Allen passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers last week.
Whenever they pressure our QB 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It’s just not a safe way to play and it’s not a good way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”
Allen was sluggish to rise after a sack in the first half. He indicated he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so frequently during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple personally. I’ve got to be more effective at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I was going backwards.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to lead the Texans. Another sack came when he almost sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson got up and chased him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt early in the third.
The Bills played for a second straight game absent receiver Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch 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 delayed for a meeting.
No change. We’re just taking it one day at a time,” McDermott said. “I thought he had a improved week, but we are 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 Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was disappointed that the Bills were unable to make plays in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we must perform, and we didn’t do a good job of that tonight,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and whatever circumstance, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
