Little went right for Josh Allen in a tough game Thursday night versus the Texans.
And still he nearly managed to driving 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 fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
After a false-start penalty created a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, a Texans defender intercepted the quarterback's throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute remaining.
We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved tough for Allen to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst eight times and hit four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after producing six touchdowns in a victory over Tampa Bay last week.
“When they pressure our quarterback 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott said. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It’s just not a healthy way to play and it isn't a good way to preserve our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”
Allen was slow to rise after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was OK and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being contacted so frequently during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a few myself. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I was losing ground.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to lead the Houston defense. Another sack occurred when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and the defender got up and pursued him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt early in the third.
The Bills played for a second consecutive matchup absent receiver Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier benched for the first series of a defeat to the Patriots in Week 5 after also being late for a team session.
“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it one day at a time,” McDermott said. “I thought he had a improved week, but we’re handling it step by step. It was not that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that provide the best chance.”
Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills were unable to execute in crucial moments.
In the end, we’ve got perform, and we didn’t do a good job of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the situation and any condition, we need to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
