Little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a tough game Thursday night versus the Houston Texans.
And still he nearly managed to driving the Buffalo Bills to a win before an late pick in the final minute ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.
The quarterback endured consecutive sacks on the team's final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
Following a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, a Texans defender intercepted the quarterback's pass at the 9-yard line with under half a minute left.
We possessed a opportunity to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen said. “Our team performed a solid job of hanging tough and our defensive unit bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got find a way, and we didn’t.”
It was tough for the signal-caller to get anything going on a evening he was brought down a career-high on eight occasions and pressured four additional instances. Allen threw for 253 yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over the Buccaneers last week.
Whenever they pressure our quarterback 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It is not a healthy way to play and it’s not a good way to preserve our field general in good shape for the remaining games. We need to play better.”
Josh Allen was slow to rise after a sack in the first half. He indicated he was OK and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being contacted so frequently on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I ran into a few personally. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I was losing ground.”
Allen surrendered 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half tackles for loss to top the Houston defense. Another sack came when he almost sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and the defender got up and chased him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt early in the third.
Buffalo competed for a second straight game without wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was previously held out for the first series of a loss to New England in the fifth week after additionally being late for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it day by day,” McDermott said. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are handling it step by step. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Bills with eight receptions for 110 yards and Cook had 116 yards and a score.
The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t make plays in crucial moments.
In the end, we must execute, and we failed to succeed of that tonight,” he concluded. “No matter the situation and whatever circumstance, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”
