Little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing contest on Thursday evening versus the Texans.
Yet he came close to driving the Bills to a victory before an interception in the final minute sealed their fate in a close loss.
Allen endured consecutive sacks on the Bills’ last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate.
After a pre-snap infraction created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, a Texans defender intercepted the quarterback's throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute remaining.
We possessed a chance to come out on top there at the end,” Josh Allen stated. “We did a solid job of staying in it 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 establish rhythm on a night he was sacked a personal-worst eight times and hit four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six touchdowns in a victory over the Buccaneers the previous week.
“When they pressure our quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It’s just not a healthy way to play and it’s not a smart way to preserve our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We’ve got to play better.”
Josh Allen was slow to rise after a sack in the first half. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so frequently on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I encountered a few myself. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I was going backwards.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to top the Houston defense. His second one occurred when he almost sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson rose and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills played for a second straight game without receiver Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier held out for the first series of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after also being late for a team session.
“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it one day at a time,” the coach said. “I felt he had a improved week, but we’re taking it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir led the Bills with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
The quarterback was frustrated that the team were unable to execute in crucial moments.
In the end, we’ve got execute, and we failed to succeed of that tonight,” he concluded. “No matter the scenario and any condition, we’ve got to find a way, and we came up short.”
