Little went well for Josh Allen in a frustrating contest on Thursday evening against the Texans.
Yet he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a win before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a close loss.
The quarterback took consecutive tackles for loss on the team's final possession, resulting in a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
After a false-start penalty led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.
We possessed a chance to come out on top there at the end,” Allen stated. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defensive unit bailed us out a few instances. We must figure it out, and we didn’t.”
Proved tough for the signal-caller to get anything going on a night he was brought down a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four other times. The QB threw for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after producing six touchdowns in a victory over the Buccaneers last week.
“When they pressure our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott commented. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It’s just not a healthy way to play and it’s not a smart way to preserve our field general in good shape for the rest of the season. We’ve got to play better.”
Allen was slow to get up after a sack 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 questioned about being contacted so frequently on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a couple myself. I’ve got to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I was losing ground.”
Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to lead the Houston defense. Another sack came when he nearly took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and the defender rose and chased him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo competed for a second straight game without wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a loss to New England in the fifth week after also being late for a team session.
No change. We’re just taking it one day at a time,” the coach said. “I felt he had a better week, but we’re taking it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the players that give us the best chance.”
Shakir topped the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
Allen was frustrated that the Bills were unable to make plays in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we must perform, and we didn’t do a good job of that this evening,” he concluded. “No matter the scenario and any condition, we’ve got to find a way, and we didn’t.”
