Little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a tough contest on Thursday evening versus the Houston Texans.
Yet he came close to willing the Bills to a victory before an late pick in the final minute ended their hopes in a close loss.
The quarterback took back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's final possession, resulting in a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate.
After a false-start penalty led to a fourth down situation for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off Allen’s pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute remaining.
We possessed a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of staying in it and our defensive unit bailed us out a couple of times. We’ve got find a way, and we didn’t.”
It was tough for Allen to establish rhythm on a night he was brought down a career-high on eight occasions and pressured four additional instances. Allen 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.
“When they hit our QB 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach McDermott said. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a smart way to preserve our field general in good shape for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was slow to get up after a sack in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was OK and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked 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 lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Houston defense. His second one occurred when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and the defender rose and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo competed for a second straight game without wideout Keon Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was earlier held out for the opening drive of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after also being late for a team session.
“Nothing new. We’re just taking it one day at a time,” the coach noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are taking it step by step. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the players that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
Allen 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 said. “No matter the scenario and any circumstance, we need to find a way, and we didn’t.”
