Little went right for Josh Allen in a disappointing game on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to willing the Bills to a win before an late pick in the final minute ended their hopes in a close defeat.
The quarterback endured back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) gained 44 yards on a short pass from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a lateral to another teammate.
Following a false-start penalty led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds remaining.
We possessed a chance to come out on top there at the end,” Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We must figure it out, and we didn’t.”
It was tough for Allen to establish rhythm on a night he was brought down a career-high on eight occasions and pressured four other times. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and zero scores after accounting for six TDs in a win over Tampa Bay the previous week.
Whenever they hit our quarterback 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It’s just not a healthy way to play and it’s not a smart way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”
Allen was slow to rise after a tackle in the first half. He indicated he was fine and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so many times on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple personally. I’ve got to be better at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”
Allen lost 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to lead the Texans. His second one came when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and Anderson got up and chased him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup without receiver Keon Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was tardy to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a defeat to the Patriots in Week 5 after also being delayed for a team session.
No change. We are taking it day by day,” McDermott said. “I felt he had a better week, but we’re handling it one day at a time. It was not that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that provide the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was disappointed that the Bills couldn’t execute down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we must execute, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever situation and whatever circumstance, we need to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
