Very little went well for Josh Allen in a tough game Thursday night against the Houston Texans.
Yet he came close to driving the Bills to a win before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a close defeat.
Allen endured consecutive tackles for loss on the Bills’ final possession, leading to a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.
Following a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, a Texans defender intercepted Allen’s throw at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds remaining.
“We had a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a good job of hanging tough and our defense saved us a couple of times. We’ve got find a way, and we didn’t.”
It was difficult for the signal-caller to get anything going on a night he was sacked a career-high eight times and pressured four additional instances. Allen passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after producing six touchdowns in a win over Tampa Bay last week.
Whenever they hit our QB a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott commented. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It’s just not a healthy way to play and it’s not a smart way to keep our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We need to play better.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to rise after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He said he was fine and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so many times on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I ran into a few myself. I’ve got to be better at disposing of the football. Too many times, I was losing ground.”
Allen lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Texans. Another sack came when he nearly took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and Anderson rose and pursued him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt early in the third.
Buffalo played for a second straight game without wideout Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was late 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 additionally being delayed for a team session.
“Nothing new. We’re just taking it day by day,” McDermott said. “I thought he had a better week, but we are taking it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we opted for the players that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Bills with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
Allen was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t make plays in crucial moments.
In the end, we’ve got execute, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “No matter the scenario and whatever condition, we need to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
