Little clicked for Josh Allen in a disappointing game on Thursday evening versus the Houston Texans.
And still he came close to driving the Bills to a win before an interception in the final minute sealed their fate in a close defeat.
Allen endured back-to-back tackles for loss on the Bills’ last drive, resulting in a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who flipped a lateral to another teammate.
After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off Allen’s throw at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.
We possessed a chance to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Allen said. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was tough for the signal-caller to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst eight times and hit four other times. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and zero scores after accounting for six TDs in a victory over the Buccaneers the previous week.
“When they pressure our QB a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a good way to keep our field general healthy for the remaining games. We need to play better.”
Josh Allen was slow to get up after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so many times on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a couple personally. I’ve got to be more effective at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I was losing ground.”
Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half tackles for loss to top the Texans. Another sack came when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and the defender got up and pursued him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt early in the third.
The Bills competed for a second consecutive matchup absent wideout Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was earlier benched for the opening drive of a loss 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,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we’re handling it step by step. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the guys that give us the best chance.”
Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a score.
Allen was disappointed that the Bills were unable to execute in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we must execute, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “No matter the situation and any condition, we need to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
