Very little went well for Josh Allen in a frustrating game on Thursday evening versus the Houston Texans.
And still he came close to willing the Bills to a win before an interception in the last moments sealed their fate in a close defeat.
The quarterback took consecutive sacks on the team's final possession, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate.
Following a false-start penalty created a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, a Texans defender intercepted the quarterback's pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds remaining.
“We had a chance to win it there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defensive unit bailed us out a few instances. We must figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved difficult for Allen to establish rhythm on a night he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and pressured four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay last week.
“When they pressure our QB a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach McDermott said. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It’s just not a safe way to compete and it isn't a smart way to preserve our field general healthy for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was slow to rise after a sack in the first half. 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 hit so frequently during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a few personally. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I was losing ground.”
Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had two and a half sacks to lead the Texans. Another sack occurred when he almost sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and the defender rose and pursued him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo played for a second straight game absent receiver 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 defeat to New England in the fifth week after additionally being late for a team session.
No change. We’re just taking it one day at a time,” McDermott said. “I thought he had a better week, but we are taking it one day at a time. It was not that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”
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 down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we didn’t do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “No matter the scenario and whatever circumstance, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
