Little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a tough game on Thursday evening versus the Texans.
And still he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a win before an late pick in the final minute sealed their fate in a close loss.
The quarterback took back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's final possession, resulting in a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) gained significant yardage on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who flipped a lateral to another teammate.
Following a false-start penalty created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off Allen’s throw at the 9-yard line with under half a minute left.
We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the end,” Josh Allen stated. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defensive unit bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”
Proved difficult for Allen to get anything going on a night he was brought down a personal-worst 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 touchdowns in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.
Whenever they pressure our quarterback 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It’s just not a safe way to compete and it’s not a good way to preserve our quarterback in good shape for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”
Josh Allen was slow to get up after a tackle in the first half. He indicated he was fine and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being hit so many times on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I encountered a couple personally. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I was going backwards.”
Allen lost 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to top the Texans. Another sack came when he nearly sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson rose and pursued him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt early in the third.
Buffalo played for a second straight game absent wideout Keon Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being late for a team session.
“Nothing new. We are taking it one day at a time,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a better week, but we are taking it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we opted for the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a score.
Allen was disappointed that the Bills couldn’t make plays down the stretch.
In the end, we must perform, and we failed to do a good job of that this evening,” he said. “Whatever scenario and whatever condition, we need to discover a solution, and we came up short.”