Very little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating contest Thursday night against the Houston Texans.
And still he nearly managed to driving the Bills to a win before an late pick in the final minute sealed their fate in a 23-19 loss.
The quarterback took back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ last drive, resulting in a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) gained significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a lateral to another teammate.
After a pre-snap infraction created a fourth down situation for Buffalo, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's throw at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.
We possessed a chance to win it there at the end,” Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of staying in it and our defensive unit saved us a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”
Proved difficult for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four additional instances. The QB threw for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after accounting for six touchdowns in a victory over the Buccaneers the previous week.
“When they pressure our quarterback 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It’s just not a safe way to play and it’s not a good way to preserve our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We need to play better.”
Josh Allen was slow to get up after a tackle in the first half. He said he was OK and that his left 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 said. “I encountered a few myself. I need to be more effective at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I was going backwards.”
Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Houston defense. Another sack came when he almost 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 loss to result in a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo competed for a second straight game absent wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was late to a squad gathering before their last game. He was earlier benched for the first series of a defeat to the Patriots in the fifth week after also being delayed for a team session.
No change. We’re just approaching it one day at a time,” McDermott said. “I thought he had a better week, but we’re taking it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir topped the Bills with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
The quarterback was disappointed that the team were unable to make plays down the stretch.
In the end, we must perform, and we failed to succeed of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever situation and whatever condition, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”
