Little went well for Josh Allen in a frustrating game Thursday night versus the Texans.
And still he nearly managed to driving the Buffalo Bills to a win before an interception in the last moments ended their hopes in a close loss.
The quarterback endured consecutive sacks on the Bills’ last drive, leading to a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
Following a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute remaining.
“We had a opportunity to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defensive unit bailed us out a couple of times. We must figure it out, and we didn’t.”
Proved tough for Allen to get anything going on a night he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and pressured four other times. Allen passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after producing six touchdowns in a win over Tampa Bay last week.
Whenever they pressure our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It’s just not a safe way to play and it’s not a smart way to preserve our field general healthy for the remaining games. We need to play better.”
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 frequently during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I encountered a few personally. I’ve got to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I was going backwards.”
Allen surrendered 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to top the Texans. Another sack occurred when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and the defender got up and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo competed for a second straight game without wideout Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their last game. He was earlier benched for the first series of a defeat to New England in the fifth week after also being delayed for a meeting.
No change. We are approaching it one day at a time,” the coach said. “I thought he had a improved week, but we’re taking it step by step. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the guys that provide the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir led the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 yards and Cook had 116 yards and a score.
The quarterback was disappointed that the team couldn’t execute in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we must execute, and we failed to succeed of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever scenario and any condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
