Little clicked for Josh Allen in a tough game Thursday night versus the Houston Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to driving the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a close defeat.
Allen took consecutive sacks on the Bills’ final possession, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) gained significant yardage on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
Following a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth down situation for the Bills, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's throw at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.
“We had 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 defensive unit bailed us out a couple of times. We must figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved difficult for Allen to get anything going on a evening he was brought down a personal-worst eight times and pressured four additional instances. The QB threw for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after producing six touchdowns in a win over Tampa Bay the previous week.
Whenever they pressure our QB a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It’s just not a healthy way to play and it’s not a smart way to keep our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We need to play better.”
Josh Allen was slow to get up after a tackle in the first half. He indicated he was OK and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being contacted so frequently during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple personally. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I was losing ground.”
Allen surrendered 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to top the Texans. Another sack came when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson rose and pursued him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo played for a second straight game absent receiver Keon Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was previously benched for the first series of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being late for a team session.
No change. We’re just approaching it day by day,” the coach said. “I felt he had a improved week, but we’re handling it one day at a time. It was not that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that provide the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a score.
Allen was disappointed that the Bills couldn’t execute down the stretch.
In the end, we must perform, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he concluded. “Whatever situation and any circumstance, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”
