Little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing contest Thursday night versus the Texans.
And still he nearly managed to willing the Buffalo Bills to a win before an interception in the final minute ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.
The quarterback endured back-to-back tackles for loss on the Bills’ last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate.
After a pre-snap infraction created a fourth down situation for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off Allen’s pass at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds left.
“We had a opportunity to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a solid job of hanging tough and our defensive unit saved us a couple of times. We must find a way, and we didn’t.”
Proved difficult for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a evening he was sacked a career-high eight times and hit four additional instances. Allen threw for 253 yards with two interceptions and zero scores after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over the Buccaneers last week.
“When they pressure our quarterback a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It is not a healthy way to compete and it isn't a smart way to keep our field general healthy for the remaining games. We need to play better.”
Josh Allen was slow to get up after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was OK and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was asked about being contacted so many times during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a few personally. I need to be better at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I was going backwards.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 tackles for loss to lead the Houston defense. His second one occurred when he almost sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson got up and pursued him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills played for a second straight game absent receiver Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was previously benched for the first series of a loss to New England in Week 5 after additionally being late for a meeting.
No change. We’re just taking it day by day,” the coach noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the players that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Bills with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 yards and a score.
The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills were unable to make plays in crucial moments.
In the end, we’ve got execute, and we didn’t do a good job of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the situation and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
