Little went well for Josh Allen in a disappointing contest Thursday night versus the Texans.
Yet he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a win before an late pick in the last moments sealed their fate in a close defeat.
Allen endured back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) gained 44 yards on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate.
Following a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, Calen Bullock picked off Allen’s throw at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds remaining.
We possessed a chance to come out on top there at the end,” Allen said. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defense saved us a couple of times. We’ve got find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was difficult for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a night he was brought down a personal-worst eight times and pressured four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a victory over the Buccaneers last week.
“When they pressure our quarterback 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Bills 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 keep our field general healthy for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to rise after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was OK and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being contacted so many times on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I encountered a few myself. I need to be better at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I was losing ground.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 sacks to lead the Texans. Another sack occurred when he nearly took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and Anderson rose and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt early in the third.
The Bills competed for a second consecutive matchup absent wideout Keon Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier benched for the first series of a defeat to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being late for a team session.
“Nothing new. We are taking it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It was not that it was ignored, but we went with the players that give us the optimal opportunity.”
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’ve got execute, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he concluded. “No matter the scenario and any circumstance, we need to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
