Little went right for Josh Allen in a disappointing game Thursday night versus the Texans.
And still he came close to driving the Bills to a victory before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a close loss.
The quarterback took consecutive sacks on the team's final possession, resulting in a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
After a pre-snap infraction created a fourth down situation for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.
“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 defense bailed us out a few instances. We must find a way, and we didn’t.”
It was tough for the signal-caller to get anything going on a night he was sacked a personal-worst eight times and pressured four other times. Allen threw for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for six touchdowns in a victory over Tampa Bay last week.
Whenever they hit our QB a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott commented. “I don’t like that stat at all. It’s just not a safe way to play and it isn't a smart way to preserve our field general healthy for the rest of the season. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to get up after a tackle in the first half. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so frequently on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I encountered a few myself. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I was going backwards.”
Allen surrendered 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had two and a half sacks to top the Texans. His second one came when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and the defender rose and chased him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo played for a second straight game without receiver Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their last game. He was earlier benched for the opening drive of a defeat to the Patriots in the fifth week after also being delayed for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We are approaching it one day at a time,” McDermott said. “I thought he had a improved week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we opted for the players that provide the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir led the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 yards and Cook had 116 yards and a score.
Allen was disappointed that the Bills were unable to execute in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we didn’t do a good job of that this evening,” he concluded. “Whatever situation and any condition, we need to find a way, and we didn’t.”
