Little clicked for Josh Allen in a frustrating game on Thursday evening versus the Texans.
And still he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an late pick in the last moments sealed their fate in a close loss.
The quarterback endured back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to another teammate.
Following a false-start penalty led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted the quarterback's throw at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.
We possessed a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen stated. “Our team performed a good job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We must find a way, and we didn’t.”
Proved difficult for Allen to get anything going on a night he was brought down a personal-worst on eight occasions and pressured four additional instances. Allen threw for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after producing six touchdowns in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.
“When they pressure our quarterback 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It’s just 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’ve got to improve our performance.”
Allen was sluggish to get up after a sack in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was OK and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being contacted so many times during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I encountered a few personally. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I was going backwards.”
Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to top the Texans. His second one occurred when he almost sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and the defender got up and chased him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills competed for a second straight game without wideout Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their last game. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a loss to New England in Week 5 after additionally being late for a team session.
“Nothing new. We’re just taking it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a better week, but we’re taking it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the players that provide the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
Allen was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t make plays down the stretch.
In the end, we’ve got execute, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and any condition, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”
