Very little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a tough contest on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.
And still he nearly managed to willing the Buffalo Bills to a win before an late pick in the last moments sealed their fate in a 23-19 defeat.
The quarterback took back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's final possession, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (with seven wins) gained significant yardage on a quick throw from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.
Following a false-start penalty created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds remaining.
“We had a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen stated. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defensive unit saved us a few instances. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved tough for the signal-caller to get anything going on a evening he was brought down a career-high on eight occasions and hit four additional instances. The QB threw for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay last week.
Whenever they pressure our QB a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It is not a healthy way to play and it’s not a smart way to keep our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to get up after a tackle in the first half. He indicated he was OK and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so frequently on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I ran into a few myself. I’ve got to be more effective at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I found myself going backwards.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 sacks to lead the Texans. Another sack came when he nearly sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson rose and pursued him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt early in the third.
Buffalo played for a second consecutive matchup without receiver Keon Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier benched for the first series of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after also being late for a team session.
“Nothing new. We are approaching it day by day,” McDermott said. “I felt he had a better week, but we are taking it step by step. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir led the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was disappointed that the team couldn’t execute in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we’ve got perform, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he said. “Whatever situation and whatever circumstance, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
