Very little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing contest on Thursday evening versus the Houston Texans.
And still he nearly managed to willing the Buffalo Bills to a win before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a close loss.
The quarterback took consecutive sacks on the team's final possession, leading to a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (with seven wins) gained 44 yards on a short pass from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
Following a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for the Bills, Calen Bullock intercepted the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.
We possessed a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen said. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved difficult for Allen to get anything going on a evening he was brought down a career-high eight times and hit four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after accounting for six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.
Whenever they pressure our quarterback 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It is not a safe way to compete and it isn't a smart way to keep our field general healthy for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”
Josh 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 questioned about being hit so many times on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I ran into a couple myself. I need to be more effective at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I found myself losing ground.”
Allen lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to lead the Houston defense. Another sack occurred when he almost sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and the defender rose and pursued him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt early in the third.
The Bills played for a second straight game absent wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their last game. He was previously held out for the first series of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after also being delayed for a team session.
“Nothing new. We’re just taking it one day at a time,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we’re taking it step by step. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that give us the best chance.”
Shakir led the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
The quarterback was disappointed that the team couldn’t execute down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we didn’t do a good job of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the situation and any circumstance, we need to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
