Little went well for Josh Allen in a tough contest on Thursday evening against the Texans.
And still he nearly managed to willing the Bills to a victory before an late pick in the last moments sealed their fate in a close defeat.
Allen took consecutive tackles for loss on the Bills’ final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
After a pre-snap infraction created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with under half a minute left.
“We had a opportunity to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defense saved us a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”
Proved tough for Allen to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a career-high on eight occasions and pressured four other times. Allen passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six TDs in a win over Tampa Bay last week.
Whenever they pressure our QB a dozen 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 compete and it isn't a smart way to preserve our field general healthy for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”
Allen was slow to get up after a sack in the first half. He said he was OK and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being contacted so frequently during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple myself. I need to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I was going backwards.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had two and a half sacks to lead the Texans. Another sack occurred when he nearly sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson rose and chased him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was tardy to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was earlier benched for the first series of a defeat to the Patriots in the fifth week after also being late for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We are approaching it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a better week, but we’re handling it step by step. It was not that it was ignored, but we opted for the players that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 yards and Cook had 116 yards and a score.
Allen was frustrated that the Bills were unable to execute down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we’ve got perform, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever scenario and any condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
