Little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a tough contest Thursday night against the Houston Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to driving the Bills to a win before an interception in the last moments sealed their fate in a close defeat.
The quarterback took consecutive tackles for loss on the team's last drive, leading to a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) gained significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
Following a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth down situation for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's throw at the 9-yard line with under half a minute left.
We possessed a opportunity to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen stated. “Our team performed a good job of hanging tough and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We must figure it out, and we didn’t.”
It was tough for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a night he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and pressured four other times. Allen passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after producing six touchdowns in a win over Tampa Bay last week.
Whenever they hit our QB a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it isn't a good way to preserve our field general in good shape for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”
Josh Allen was slow to rise after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He said he was OK and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being hit so frequently during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I ran into a few myself. I’ve got to be better at disposing of the football. Too many times, I was losing ground.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to lead the Texans. His second one came when he almost sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and the defender rose and chased him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt early in the third.
Buffalo competed for a second straight game without receiver Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their last game. He was earlier held out for the opening drive of a defeat to the Patriots in the fifth week after also being delayed for a team session.
“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 wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that provide the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir led the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was disappointed that the Bills couldn’t execute in crucial moments.
In the end, we’ve got perform, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he concluded. “No matter the situation and any condition, we’ve got to find a way, and we came up short.”
