Little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating game Thursday night against the Houston Texans.
And still he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a win before an interception in the final minute ended their hopes in a close loss.
The quarterback took back-to-back tackles for loss on the Bills’ final possession, resulting in a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who flipped a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
Following 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 left.
We possessed a chance to win it there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “Our team performed a solid job of hanging tough and our defensive unit saved us a couple of times. We must figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was difficult for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a night he was brought down a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four other times. Allen passed for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after accounting for six touchdowns in a victory over Tampa Bay last week.
“When they hit our QB 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It is not a safe way to compete and it isn't a good way to keep our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We’ve got to play better.”
Allen was slow to get up after a sack in the first half. He indicated he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being contacted so many times on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I ran into a few myself. I’ve got to be better at disposing of the football. Too many times, I was losing ground.”
Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to top the Houston defense. His second one came when he nearly sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and Anderson rose and chased him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt early in the third.
Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup absent receiver Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was earlier held out for the first series of a loss to the Patriots in the fifth week after additionally being late for a team session.
No change. We’re just approaching it one day at a time,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a better 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 topped the Bills with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
The quarterback was disappointed that the Bills couldn’t execute down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we didn’t do a good job of that this evening,” he concluded. “Whatever situation and whatever condition, we’ve got to find a way, and we didn’t.”
