Very little clicked for Josh Allen in a tough contest on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.
And still he nearly managed to driving the Bills to a victory before an interception in the final minute ended their hopes in a close defeat.
The quarterback took consecutive tackles for loss on the team's final possession, resulting in a long fourth down, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.
Following a pre-snap infraction created a fourth down situation for the Bills, Calen Bullock intercepted the quarterback's throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute remaining.
We possessed a opportunity to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved difficult for Allen to establish rhythm on a evening he was sacked a career-high eight times and hit four other times. The QB passed for 253 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a victory over the Buccaneers the previous week.
Whenever they hit our QB a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott commented. “I don’t like that stat at all. It’s just not a healthy way to play and it isn't a smart way to preserve our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Allen was slow to get up after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was OK and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being contacted so many times during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I encountered a couple myself. I need to be more effective at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”
Allen lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 sacks to top the Texans. Another sack occurred when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away 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 competed for a second straight game without wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was earlier benched for the first series of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after also being late for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We’re just taking it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I thought he had a improved week, but we’re taking it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we opted for the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
Allen was disappointed that the team were unable to make plays in crucial moments.
In the end, we’ve got execute, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he concluded. “Whatever situation and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to find a way, and we didn’t.”
