Very little went right for Josh Allen in a tough contest on Thursday evening versus the Houston Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to driving the Bills to a victory before an late pick in the last moments sealed their fate in a 23-19 defeat.
The quarterback endured back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ final possession, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
Following a false-start penalty created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute remaining.
We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defense saved us a few instances. We’ve got find a way, and we didn’t.”
It was difficult for Allen to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a personal-worst eight times and hit four additional instances. The QB threw for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over Tampa Bay last week.
“When they hit our quarterback 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It is not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a smart way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Allen was sluggish to get up 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 in an awkward manner. He was asked about being contacted so frequently during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple personally. I’ve got to be more effective at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I was going backwards.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half tackles for loss to top the Texans. Another sack came when he nearly sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and the defender rose and chased him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt early in the third.
The Bills played for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a squad gathering before their last game. He was earlier benched for the first series of a defeat to the Patriots in the fifth week after also being delayed for a meeting.
No change. We are taking it one day at a time,” McDermott said. “I felt he had a better week, but we are taking it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
Allen was disappointed that the Bills were unable to execute in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we must execute, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and whatever condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
