Little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a tough game Thursday night against the Houston Texans.
Yet he came close to driving the Bills to a win before an late pick in the final minute ended their hopes in a 23-19 loss.
The quarterback endured consecutive tackles for loss on the team's final possession, resulting in a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
After a false-start penalty led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute remaining.
We possessed a chance to win it there at the end,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out a couple of times. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved tough for Allen to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst 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 win over Tampa Bay last week.
“When they pressure our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It’s just not a safe way to compete and it isn't a smart way to keep our field general in good shape for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was slow to rise after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He said he was OK and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being contacted so many times on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I ran into a couple personally. I need to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 sacks to top the Houston defense. Another sack occurred when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson got up and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt early in the third.
Buffalo played for a second straight game absent wideout Keon Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was late to a squad gathering before their last game. He was earlier benched for the first series of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being delayed for a meeting.
No change. We are approaching it day by day,” the coach said. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are taking it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the players that provide the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a score.
The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t execute in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we must execute, and we didn’t do a good job of that this evening,” he said. “Whatever scenario and any circumstance, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”
