Very little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a tough contest Thursday night against the Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to willing the Bills to a win before an late pick in the last moments sealed their fate in a 23-19 defeat.
The quarterback took back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) gained significant yardage on a quick throw from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a lateral to another teammate.
After a false-start penalty led to a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds remaining.
“We had a chance to win it there at the end,” Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of hanging tough and our defense saved us a couple of times. We must figure it out, and we didn’t.”
Proved difficult for the signal-caller to get anything going on a night he was brought down a personal-worst eight times and hit four other times. Allen passed for 253 yards with two interceptions and zero scores after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over the Buccaneers last week.
Whenever they pressure our quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It’s just not a healthy way to play and it isn't a smart way to keep our field general in good shape for the rest of the season. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to rise after a sack in the first half. He said he was fine and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being hit so many times during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I encountered a few personally. I need to be better at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself going backwards.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half sacks to top the Houston defense. Another sack came when he almost sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and Anderson got up and pursued him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Keon Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a team meeting before their last game. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a defeat to New England in the fifth week after also being delayed for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We are taking it one day at a time,” McDermott noted. “I thought he had a improved week, but we are taking it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that give us the best chance.”
Shakir led the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a score.
Allen was frustrated that the team couldn’t execute down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we must perform, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the situation and whatever condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
