Little went well for Josh Allen in a tough game on Thursday evening against the Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to willing the Bills to a win before an interception in the final minute ended their hopes in a 23-19 loss.
Allen endured consecutive sacks on the team's final possession, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) gained significant yardage on a quick throw from Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate.
Following a pre-snap infraction created a fourth down situation for the Bills, a Texans defender intercepted Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with under half a minute left.
We possessed a opportunity to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a good job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got find a way, and we didn’t.”
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 threw for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.
Whenever they pressure our QB 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach McDermott commented. “I don’t like that stat at all. It is not a safe way to compete and it’s not a smart way to preserve our field general healthy for the rest of the season. We need to improve our performance.”
Allen was sluggish to rise after a sack in the first half. He said he was OK and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being hit so frequently on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I ran into a couple personally. I need to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I was going backwards.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to lead the Texans. Another sack occurred when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson got up and pursued him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo played for a second straight game without wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was previously benched for the opening drive of a loss to the Patriots in the fifth week after additionally being delayed for a team session.
“Nothing new. We are taking it day by day,” McDermott said. “I felt he had a better week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It was not that it was ignored, but we opted for the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 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 succeed of that this evening,” he said. “Whatever situation and whatever circumstance, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”
