Very little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing game Thursday night versus the Texans.
And still he came close to driving the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an interception in the last moments ended their hopes in a 23-19 loss.
The quarterback endured back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's final possession, leading to a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) gained 44 yards on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
After a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for the Bills, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds left.
“We had a opportunity to win it there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen said. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defensive unit bailed us out a couple of times. We’ve got find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved difficult for Allen to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a career-high on eight occasions and pressured four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after producing six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay last week.
Whenever they pressure our QB 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It’s just not a safe way to play and it’s not a good way to keep our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We need to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was slow to get up after a tackle in the first half. He said he was OK and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being contacted so many times during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I ran into a couple myself. I need to be better at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself going backwards.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 sacks to lead the Texans. Another sack came when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson got up and chased him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt early in the third.
Buffalo played for a second straight game absent wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was previously benched for the opening drive of a defeat to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being late for a team session.
“Nothing new. We are approaching 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 opted for the players that give us the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
Allen was disappointed that the team were unable to make plays down the stretch.
In the end, we’ve got execute, and we didn’t do a good job of that this evening,” he concluded. “No matter the situation and any condition, we need to find a way, and we didn’t.”
