Very little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a tough contest on Thursday evening versus the Houston Texans.
And still he nearly managed to willing the Buffalo Bills to a win before an interception in the last moments ended their hopes in a close defeat.
The quarterback took back-to-back sacks on the team's last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (7-4) gained significant yardage on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a lateral to another teammate.
After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off Allen’s throw at the 9-yard line with under half a minute remaining.
We possessed a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of hanging tough and our defensive unit bailed us out a few instances. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved difficult for the signal-caller to get anything going on a evening he was brought down a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four additional instances. Allen threw for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.
Whenever they hit our QB 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott commented. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It is not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a smart way to keep our field general healthy for the rest of the season. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Allen was sluggish to rise after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being hit so frequently on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I encountered a few myself. I need to be more effective at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself going backwards.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to top the Texans. Another sack came when he nearly 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 early in the third.
Buffalo played for a second straight game absent wideout Keon Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a defeat to New England in Week 5 after also being late for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a better week, but we are taking it step by step. It was not that it was ignored, but we went with the players that provide the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t execute in crucial moments.
In the end, we’ve got perform, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the situation and whatever condition, we need to find a way, and we didn’t.”
