Little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating game on Thursday evening versus the Houston Texans.
Yet he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an interception in the final minute sealed their fate in a close loss.
The quarterback took back-to-back tackles for loss on the Bills’ last drive, resulting in a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to a receiver, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate.
After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, a Texans defender picked off Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with under half a minute remaining.
We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen stated. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defense saved us a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was difficult for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a personal-worst eight times and pressured four additional instances. The QB threw for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over the Buccaneers last week.
Whenever they hit our quarterback 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach Sean 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 quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We need to play better.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to get up after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He said he was OK and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being contacted so frequently during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple myself. 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 two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Houston defense. Another sack came when he almost sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson rose and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt early in the third.
Buffalo played for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was earlier held out for the first series of a defeat to New England in Week 5 after also being late for a team session.
“Nothing new. We are approaching it one day at a time,” the coach said. “I thought he had a better week, but we are handling it step by step. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
Allen was disappointed that the team couldn’t make plays down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we must perform, and we failed to do a good job of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the situation and whatever condition, we’ve got to find a way, and we didn’t.”
