Little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing contest on Thursday evening against the Texans.
And still he nearly managed to driving the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an interception in the final minute ended their hopes in a close loss.
The quarterback took back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ final possession, leading to a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) gained 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.
Following a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off Allen’s pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.
We possessed a chance to come out on top there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defensive unit saved us a couple of times. We must figure it out, and we didn’t.”
Proved difficult for Allen to establish rhythm on a night he was brought down a personal-worst on eight occasions and pressured four other times. Allen passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over the Buccaneers last week.
Whenever they pressure our quarterback 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It is not a healthy way to play and it isn't a smart way to keep our field general in good shape for the remaining games. We’ve got to play better.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to rise after a sack in the first half. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so many times on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I encountered a couple personally. I’ve got to be more effective at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I was losing ground.”
Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half sacks to lead the Houston defense. His second one came when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson got up and pursued him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills competed for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was earlier benched for the opening drive of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being late for a team session.
No change. We are taking it one day at a time,” the coach noted. “I felt he had a better week, but we’re taking it step by step. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the players that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir led the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills were unable to make plays in crucial moments.
In the end, we must perform, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he concluded. “Whatever situation and any circumstance, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
