Little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing contest Thursday night versus the Texans.
And still he came close to willing the Bills to a victory before an late pick in the final minute ended their hopes in a close defeat.
The quarterback endured consecutive sacks on the Bills’ last drive, leading to a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a lateral to another teammate.
Following a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, a Texans defender intercepted Allen’s pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.
“We had a chance to win it there at the end,” Allen said. “We did a solid job of staying in it and our defensive unit saved us a couple of times. We must figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved difficult for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a evening he was sacked a career-high on eight occasions and hit four other times. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after producing six touchdowns in a victory over the Buccaneers the previous week.
Whenever they hit our QB 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach McDermott commented. “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’ve got to improve our performance.”
Allen was sluggish to rise after a sack in the first half. He said he was fine and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being contacted so many times on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I ran into a couple personally. I’ve got to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I was going backwards.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to lead the Texans. His second one came when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and the defender got up and pursued him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt early in the third.
The Bills played for a second consecutive matchup absent wideout Keon Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was tardy to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was previously benched for the first series of a defeat to the Patriots in the fifth week after also being delayed for a team session.
No change. We are approaching it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I thought he had a better week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we opted for the players that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir led the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was frustrated that the team couldn’t make plays down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we’ve got perform, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and any circumstance, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
