Very little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a tough game Thursday night versus the Houston Texans.
And still he came close to driving the Bills to a victory before an interception in the final minute sealed their fate in a close defeat.
Allen endured back-to-back tackles for loss on the Bills’ final possession, resulting in a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who flipped a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth down situation for the Bills, Calen Bullock picked off Allen’s throw at the 9-yard line with under half a minute remaining.
“We had a chance to win it there at the end,” Josh Allen stated. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defense saved us a few instances. We’ve got find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved difficult for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a evening he was sacked a career-high on eight occasions and pressured four other times. Allen threw for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay last week.
Whenever they hit our quarterback a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott commented. “I don’t like that stat at all. It is not a safe way to play and it’s not a good way to keep our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We’ve got to play better.”
Allen was sluggish to rise after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was OK and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being hit so many times during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I ran into a couple myself. I need to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”
Allen lost 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 sacks to top the Texans. His second one came when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and the defender rose and pursued him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt early in the third.
Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup absent wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a squad gathering 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 meeting.
No change. We’re just taking it one day at a time,” McDermott said. “I felt he had a better week, but we’re handling it step by step. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that give us the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
The quarterback was disappointed that the team couldn’t make plays in crucial moments.
In the end, we must perform, and we didn’t do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever scenario and whatever condition, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
