Little went right for Josh Allen in a disappointing contest Thursday night against the Houston Texans.
Yet he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a win before an interception in the last moments ended their hopes in a close loss.
The quarterback endured consecutive sacks on the team's last drive, leading to a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (7-4) gained significant yardage on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate.
After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, a Texans defender intercepted the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds left.
We possessed a chance to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Allen said. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defense saved us a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was difficult for Allen to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a personal-worst eight times and pressured four additional instances. Allen passed for 253 yards with two interceptions and zero scores after accounting for six touchdowns in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.
Whenever they pressure our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it isn't a good way to preserve our quarterback in good shape for the rest of the season. We need to improve our performance.”
Allen was slow to rise after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He said he was fine and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being contacted so many times on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I encountered a few myself. I need to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I was losing ground.”
Allen lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half tackles for loss to top the Texans. Another sack came when he nearly took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and Anderson rose and chased him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills played for a second straight game without receiver Keon Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was late to a team meeting before their last game. He was previously benched for the opening drive of a defeat to the Patriots in the fifth week after additionally being delayed for a team session.
“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it one day at a time,” the coach noted. “I felt he had a better week, but we’re 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 led the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was disappointed that the team couldn’t execute down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we failed to succeed of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever scenario and whatever condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
