Very little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing contest Thursday night against the Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to willing the Bills to a win before an late pick in the last moments sealed their fate in a close loss.
The quarterback took consecutive sacks on the Bills’ last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.
Following a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, a Texans defender intercepted the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute remaining.
“We had a opportunity to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a good job of hanging tough and our defensive unit bailed us out a couple of times. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved tough for the signal-caller to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst eight times and pressured four other times. Allen passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after accounting for six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers last week.
Whenever they pressure our quarterback a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It is not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a smart way to keep our field general healthy for the remaining games. We need to play better.”
Allen was sluggish to get up after a sack in the first half. He indicated he was OK and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was asked 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 throwing the ball away. Too many times, I was losing ground.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to lead the Houston defense. Another sack occurred when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson rose and chased 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 consecutive matchup without wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier benched for the opening drive of a defeat to New England in the fifth week after additionally being late for a team session.
“Nothing new. We are approaching it day by day,” McDermott said. “I thought he had a better week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir led the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
Allen was frustrated that the Bills were unable to execute in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we’ve got perform, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he concluded. “No matter the situation and whatever condition, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
