Little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a tough game on Thursday evening versus the Houston Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to driving the Buffalo Bills to a win before an interception in the final minute sealed their fate in a close defeat.
The quarterback endured back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to another teammate.
Following a pre-snap infraction created a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.
“We had a opportunity to win it there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen stated. “Our team performed a solid job of hanging tough and our defensive unit bailed us out a few instances. We must figure it out, and we didn’t.”
Proved tough for Allen to establish rhythm on a night he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four additional instances. Allen threw for 253 yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six touchdowns in a victory over the Buccaneers the previous week.
“When they pressure our QB 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It is not a healthy way to play and it’s not a good way to preserve our quarterback in good shape for the rest of the season. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Allen was sluggish to get up after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He said 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 hit so frequently during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple personally. I’ve got to be more effective at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself going backwards.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had 2.5 sacks 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 downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo competed for a second straight game absent wideout Keon Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a squad gathering before their last game. He was earlier held out for the first series of a loss to New England in the fifth week after additionally being late for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We are approaching it one day at a time,” McDermott said. “I thought he had a better week, but we’re handling it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir topped the Bills with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was frustrated that the team were unable to make plays down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we’ve got perform, and we failed to do a good job of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the situation and any circumstance, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
