Very little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating contest Thursday night against the Texans.
And still he nearly managed to willing the Bills to a win before an interception in the last moments sealed their fate in a close loss.
The quarterback took back-to-back sacks on the team's final possession, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (7-4) gained significant yardage on a quick throw from Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
After a false-start penalty led to a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, a Texans defender intercepted Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute remaining.
“We had a opportunity to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen stated. “We did a solid job of hanging tough and our defensive unit bailed us out a few instances. We must figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved tough for the signal-caller to get anything going on a night he was sacked a personal-worst eight times and hit four other times. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over Tampa Bay the previous week.
Whenever they pressure our quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It is not a healthy way to compete and it isn't a good way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We’ve got to play better.”
Josh Allen was slow to get up after a sack in the first half. He said he was OK and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being hit so many times during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I ran into a few myself. I need to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I found myself losing ground.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to top the Texans. Another sack occurred when he almost sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and Anderson rose and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt early in the third.
Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup absent receiver Keon Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being delayed for a meeting.
No change. We’re just approaching it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are handling it step by step. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that provide the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 yards and a score.
The quarterback was disappointed that the Bills couldn’t make plays down the stretch.
In the end, we’ve got execute, and we didn’t do a good job of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the situation and whatever condition, we’ve got to find a way, and we didn’t.”
