Very little went right for Josh Allen in a frustrating game Thursday night versus the Texans.
Yet he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a close defeat.
The quarterback took back-to-back tackles for loss on the Bills’ final possession, leading to a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who flipped a lateral to another teammate.
Following a false-start penalty led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted the quarterback's throw at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.
“We had a opportunity to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of hanging tough and our defense saved us a few instances. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved tough for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a evening he was sacked a career-high on eight occasions and hit four additional instances. The QB threw for 253 yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six touchdowns in a victory over Tampa Bay last week.
“When they hit our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It’s just not a safe way to play and it isn't a good way to preserve our quarterback in good shape for the rest of the season. We need to improve our performance.”
Allen was slow to rise after a sack in the first half. He indicated he was fine and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so many times during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I ran into a few personally. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I found myself going backwards.”
Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to top the Texans. Another sack came when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and the defender rose and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt early in the third.
The Bills competed for a second straight game absent wideout Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their last game. He was previously benched for the first series of a defeat to New England in Week 5 after additionally being late for a meeting.
No change. We are approaching it day by day,” McDermott said. “I thought he had a better week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the guys that provide the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t make plays in crucial moments.
In the end, we must perform, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he concluded. “No matter the scenario and whatever circumstance, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”
