Little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating contest Thursday night against the Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an late pick in the final minute sealed their fate in a close defeat.
The quarterback endured back-to-back sacks on the team's last drive, resulting in a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
After a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds remaining.
“We had a chance to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen stated. “We did a solid job of hanging tough and our defense saved us a couple of times. We’ve got find a way, and we didn’t.”
Proved difficult for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a evening he was sacked a career-high on eight occasions and hit four additional instances. Allen passed for 253 yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.
Whenever they hit our quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It’s just not a safe 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 play better.”
Allen was slow to get up after a tackle in the first half. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being contacted so frequently on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I encountered a couple myself. I’ve got to be better at disposing of the football. Too many times, I was going backwards.”
Allen lost 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to lead the Texans. Another sack occurred when he almost sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and the defender rose and pursued him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt early in the third.
Buffalo competed for a second straight game without wideout Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a squad gathering before their last game. He was earlier benched for the first series of a defeat to the Patriots in the fifth week after also being late for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it one day at a time,” the coach said. “I thought 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 give us the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Bills with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was disappointed that the team couldn’t execute in crucial moments.
In the end, we must perform, and we didn’t do a good job of that this evening,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and whatever circumstance, we need to find a way, and we didn’t.”
