Very little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a tough contest on Thursday evening versus the Houston Texans.
Yet he came close 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 endured consecutive sacks on the team's final possession, resulting in a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate.
After a pre-snap infraction created a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds 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 saved us a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was tough for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a night he was brought down a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four additional instances. Allen passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six touchdowns in a victory over the Buccaneers last week.
Whenever they hit our QB a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It is not a healthy way to compete and it isn't a good way to keep our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We need to improve our performance.”
Allen was slow to get up after a sack in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was fine and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being contacted so many times on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I ran into a few personally. I’ve got to be more effective at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I found myself going backwards.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to lead the Houston defense. His second one came when he nearly took Allen down 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 loss to result in a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills played for a second straight game absent wideout Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was tardy to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was earlier held out for the first series of a loss to the Patriots in the fifth week after also being delayed for a team session.
No change. We’re just approaching it one day at a time,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are taking it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we opted for the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was disappointed that the Bills couldn’t execute in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we’ve got perform, and we failed to succeed of that tonight,” he concluded. “No matter the scenario and any condition, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”
