Very little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a tough game on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to driving the Bills to a win before an interception in the final minute sealed their fate in a close loss.
The quarterback took back-to-back sacks on the team's final possession, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who flipped a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
Following a pre-snap infraction created a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute remaining.
We possessed a opportunity to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen stated. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defensive unit bailed us out a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was difficult for Allen to establish rhythm on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and pressured four additional instances. Allen passed for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over Tampa Bay the previous week.
Whenever they pressure our quarterback a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It’s just not a safe way to compete and it’s not a good way to keep our quarterback in good shape for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to get up after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was OK and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being hit so frequently during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I ran into a few myself. I need to be better at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I found myself losing ground.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to top the Houston defense. His second one came when he almost sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and Anderson got up and chased him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was late to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier benched for the first series of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being delayed for a meeting.
No change. We’re just approaching it day by day,” the coach said. “I thought he had a better 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 led the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was disappointed that the team were unable to execute in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we must perform, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he concluded. “No matter the situation and any circumstance, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
