Very little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating game Thursday night against the Texans.
And still he came close to driving the Buffalo Bills to a win before an interception in the last moments sealed their fate in a close loss.
The quarterback took back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's final possession, leading to a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) gained significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth down situation for the Bills, Calen Bullock intercepted the quarterback's pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds remaining.
“We had a opportunity to win it there at the end,” Josh Allen stated. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defense saved us a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was difficult for the signal-caller to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over Tampa Bay the previous week.
“When they pressure our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It’s just not a safe way to compete and it’s not a good way to keep our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was slow to get up after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was fine and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being hit so frequently during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple personally. I need to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I was going backwards.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to top the Texans. His second one occurred when he nearly sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and the defender got up and chased him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills played for a second consecutive matchup absent wideout Keon Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was earlier held out for the opening drive of a defeat to the Patriots in the fifth week after additionally being late for a team session.
No change. We’re just taking it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I thought he had a better week, but we’re handling it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we opted for the players that provide the best chance.”
Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 yards and Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was frustrated that the team couldn’t make plays in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we must perform, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he said. “No matter the situation and any circumstance, we need to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
