Little went well for Josh Allen in a disappointing contest on Thursday evening against the Texans.
And still he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a win before an interception in the last moments ended their hopes in a close defeat.
Allen endured back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ last drive, resulting in a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) gained 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.
After a false-start penalty led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off Allen’s throw at the 9-yard line with under half a minute left.
We possessed a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a solid job of hanging tough and our defense saved us a few instances. We must find a way, and we didn’t.”
Proved tough for the signal-caller to get anything going on a night he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and pressured four additional instances. The QB threw for 253 yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.
Whenever they hit our quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It is not a safe way to play and it isn't a smart way to keep our quarterback in good shape for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”
Allen was slow to rise after a sack in the first half. He said he was OK and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so frequently on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I ran into a couple personally. I’ve got to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I was losing ground.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had two and a half tackles for loss to top the Texans. Another sack came when he nearly sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson rose and chased him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills played for a second consecutive matchup absent receiver Keon Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was late to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was previously held out for the first series of a defeat to New England in Week 5 after additionally being late for a meeting.
No change. We are taking it day by day,” the coach noted. “I thought he had a better week, but we’re taking it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that give us the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir led the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
Allen was frustrated that the team couldn’t make plays in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he concluded. “Whatever situation and whatever condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
