Little clicked for Josh Allen in a tough contest Thursday night against the Texans.
And still he nearly managed to willing the Buffalo Bills to a win before an interception in the last moments ended their hopes in a close defeat.
The quarterback took consecutive sacks on the team's final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to a receiver, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, a Texans defender intercepted Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.
We possessed a chance to come out on top there at the end,” Allen stated. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”
Proved tough for Allen to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst eight times and hit four other times. Allen threw for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after accounting for six TDs in a win over Tampa Bay last week.
“When they hit our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott said. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It is not a safe way to play and it’s not a good way to keep our field general healthy for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”
Allen was slow to rise after a tackle in the first half. He said 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 contacted so many times during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I ran into a couple myself. I’ve got to be better at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I was going backwards.”
Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Texans. His second one occurred when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and the defender got up and pursued him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt early in the third.
Buffalo played for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a squad gathering before their last game. He was previously benched for the first series of a defeat to New England in the fifth week after additionally being delayed for a team session.
“Nothing new. We are approaching it one day at a time,” the coach noted. “I thought he had a improved week, but we’re handling it step by step. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 yards and Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was disappointed that the team couldn’t make plays down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we didn’t do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever scenario and any circumstance, we’ve got to find a way, and we didn’t.”
