Very little clicked for Josh Allen in a disappointing contest on Thursday evening against the Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to driving the Bills to a win before an late pick in the final minute sealed their fate in a close defeat.
Allen took consecutive tackles for loss on the team's last drive, leading to a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) gained significant yardage on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, a Texans defender intercepted the quarterback's throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute remaining.
“We had a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of staying in it and our defensive unit bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got find a way, and we didn’t.”
It was difficult for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a night he was brought down a career-high on eight occasions and hit four other times. The QB passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after producing six touchdowns in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.
“When they pressure our QB a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it isn't a good way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We’ve got to play better.”
Allen was slow to rise after a tackle in the first half. He indicated he was OK and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was asked about being contacted so many times during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I ran into a couple myself. I’ve got to be better at disposing of the football. Too many times, I was going backwards.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had two and a half tackles for loss to top the Houston defense. Another sack occurred when he nearly sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and the defender got up and chased him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup absent wideout Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a defeat to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being delayed for a team session.
“Nothing new. We are taking it one day at a time,” McDermott said. “I felt he had a improved week, but we’re taking it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir led the Bills with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills were unable to make plays in crucial moments.
In the end, we’ve got execute, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever scenario and whatever circumstance, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
